I'm Right Here
by Lady Fingers20
Summary: It's time for a celebration in the caves and everyone is having fun, when something goes wrong. None of Ian's careful planning could have prepared him for what happened next.
1. In The Caves

**A/N: This story is dedicated to Vanessa-Wolfe303 who PM'd me with an idea for a short story, so here it is, love! : ) I hope that you enjoy it!!**

**This is a short story that shouldn't last more than five or six chapters at the most, my main focus is on Broken and Bleeding, but this is a little side project for the meantime.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. Vanessa-Wolfe303 is responsible for the plot; I just brought her idea to life.**

**Wanda POV**

I was in a deep sleep when all of a sudden it felt like the bed was moving, and I was too groggy to do anything about it. Instead, I groaned and tried to roll over.

"Come on, get up! Get up! Get up!" someone was yelling in my ear, and it wasn't Ian.

"Mnmm, go away," I mumbled.

Instead of going away, my blankets were ripped off of me and I shivered, trying to grab them back from wherever I went. I was groping at nothing in the air and put my head back down, but found that my pillow was gone too.

"What do you want," I whined, not very happy that I was lying in bed with just a small tank top on and a pair of small shorts.

"Did you forget what's happening today?" I cracked open an eye to see that Mel was standing on the foot of our bed, grinning evilly at me.

"Apparently I did. Where's Ian?"

I could practically hear her rolling her eyes, but instead lay back on the bed, trying to roll onto my stomach, but I felt something on either side of me, holding me in place. I finally opened my eyes and saw Mel standing above me with her legs on either side of my body.

"What is it? Why can't you just let me lie here a little longer?"

"Are you nuts?" she practically screeched at me and the bed bounced again as she lay down beside me.

I sighed and looked over at Mel to see that she was still smiling.

"You know, your face is going to freeze like that soon enough."

She just laughed at me before throwing her arms around me in a sideways hug.

"You really have no idea, do you?"

I shook my head and she sighed.

"What happens at this time each year?"

I shrugged.

"Start searching."

I frowned in confusion before realizing that she wanted me to search through Pet's memories to find my answer. I looked away and began searching, sifting through almost everything, reaching out to every part of her mind. It clicked in my mind and I gasped.

"No," I whispered.

Mel just giggled and pulled me closer.

"Happy Birthday, Miss Wanda!" she whispered in my ear.

I just shook my head.

"No?"

"No."

"Why not?" she asked me.

"It's not _my_ birthday, it's Pet's."

She thought about it for a second. "Well, you know what? It doesn't matter; you know why?" she continued without my answer. "Pet isn't here anymore, neither is the original human that belonged to this body. You're here; so it's your birthday."

"But-"

"No buts, Wanda. This is your birthday and you're going to enjoy it immensely. You're going to accept this with open arms with a big huge smile on your face."

I couldn't help but smile and she hugged me tight before jumping up and out of the bed.

"You're way too excited this early in the morning," I said to her, flinging an arm over my eyes.

"Nu uh, oh no you don't!" She grasped my arm and ripped it off my head, effectively pulling me so that I was sitting upright as well.

"Here," she threw a few bundles of clothes at me and I barely caught them before they hit the floor.

I eyed them and recognized a purple shirt, a blue piece of fabric and some jeans. I held up the blue cloth between my thumb and my first finger and just looked at her.

"Do you seriously expect me to wear this? What is it?"

She sighed before coming over to me and yanking it from my hand.

"It's a top, silly. It goes like this," she picked up the purple one and shoved the blue top underneath it. "I didn't think that you would want to show that much cleavage, am I right?"

Once I saw how low cut the purple shirt was, I immediately started shaking my head.

"Okay, okay, I'll put it on," I conceded and she threw the clothes back at me.

"Get ready fast, I'll be back in a few minutes," she said from the door, disappearing out of sight.

I sighed and put the jeans on. I tried putting the blue "shirt" on and got it stuck on my arms over my head.

"_This is not my day," _I thought to myself.

"Mel!" I called out, knowing that she was nearby and sure enough she came into the room a second later.

Immediately, she burst out laughing and I flushed red. It was probably a really pathetic sight. I was just standing there in a bra with my arms up in the air and a silly shirt stuck on them.

"Never fear, Melanie's here!" she yelled out, jumping in front of me and placing her hands on her hips, looking up at the ceiling.

"Yeah, yeah Miss Melanie..."

"No, I've got to have a better super hero name than that," she interrupted, looking at me.

"If you help me out of this, I'll think of another one, alright?"

She grinned and started to pull the shirt down to the right spot. Once she had done that, she promptly reached around and before I fully realized what she was doing, my bra was off and flying across the room.

"Mel!" I yelled at her, running to fetch it.

"Ohhhh no you don't. You're not wearing one with this."

"Bu... bu... but."

"Don't give me that," she grabbed a hold of my arm ad yanked me back over to the bed.

After that little tussle, she yanked the purple number over my head and told me to adjust it over my hips so it sat just in the right place.

"Miss Melanie, the Controller?" I said, randomly and she thought about it for a second before punching my arm.

"Ow!"

"Well that's what you get for coming up with a stupid name like that," she replied, chucking a pair of shoes at me; neither of which I caught.

"Sor-ry; I didn't exactly have a lot of time to come up with that, you should be grateful I got that much."

I bent to retrieve the shoes and looked at them.

"I'm going to kill myself on the rock floor in these," I held up the black pumps and she shrugged.

"That's what you have Ian for. Just hang on to him the whole time and he'll keep you upright. Why else do you think that we keep them around?"

I giggled and slipped my feet into the shoes. I still wasn't as tall as Mel in them, but it gave me a definite boost.

"Now for your hair..."

"My hair is fine," I defended, running a brush through it quickly.

"At least let me braid half of it?" she asked and I sighed.

"Alright."

"Great, sit down." I obliged and she began to yank on my hair.

I wondered why she was going to such lengths for my silly birthday. I mean, it's one day and it comes every year; there's no need to make a huge deal out of it. I would be quite happy just sitting in here and maybe sleeping with Ian by my side, of course. But alas, here I was, getting my hair ripped out and wearing a pair of heels around the caves.

I knew that they had been planning something, but I didn't say anything. The one time that I did ask about what they were always talking about, Ian told me to mind my own business and effectively distracted me with that damned smile of his, so I forgot about it until he left. It seemed that every time that I was away from any of them, they would start whispering behind my back. Ian and I were usually inseparable, but he was sneakily finding ways to meet with them.

Case in point this morning when I was ripped from my nice warm bed by Melanie, instead of peacefully waking up to Ian lying beside me.

"There, done," Mel announced, stepping away from my hair.

"Awesome; what time is it?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Well past midday though."

"What?" I whirled around to look at her. "How could you guys have let me sleep in that late? That's insane!"

"Easily; you needed the sleep, and we needed the time to prepare."

I started shaking my head. "You did not need to prepare anything; I told you guys a hundred times over whenever you asked me about my birthday that I didn't want anything and I didn't want you to get me anything."

"I know, and we didn't listen to you," she replied, looking at her nails. "You know what, Wanda? I don't want to hear any excuses or anything from you today. We've all been busting our asses to pull this off for you."

"I know that you have, Mel, but I asked you not to; it's just unnecessary."

"It is not." Mel came to sit beside me on the bed and took both of my hands in hers.

"Wanda, we wanted to do this for you because you are honestly the best thing that has happened to anyone in these caves. Without you, I never would have had the chance to come back here; to be with Jared and Jamie. Think about it; Jamie could have died without you, a lot more souls and humans would have been killed if you hadn't piped up with your knowledge of the medical stuff. And also without you, Ian would have been miserable and alone for the rest of his life."

I smiled wistfully and looked down at our clasped hands.

"Wanda, you are the greatest sister that I could honestly asked for in this entire universe." I looked up and into her eyes to see that they were brimming with tears. I pulled her in and we hugged for a little while before she sat back and wiped away her tears.

"So please, just accept that we did this for you, because you most certainly deserve it. Plus, you have no idea how hard Ian has been working to make this perfect for you."

I couldn't help but smile at that.

"Really?"

"Yes. He wanted your first birthday with us to be the best one of your life, and I'm pretty sure that he lived up to that expectation."

"Where is he?" I asked.

"You'll be able to see him in a few minutes; they're not quite ready yet. Besides, you haven't even looked at yourself yet! My God, Ian would kill me if I didn't show you!"

I frowned, but she tugged on my hand so that I stood up and dragged me over to the makeshift mirror that Ian had made in our room out of shards of little mirrors that he had somehow stuck to the cave wall. The result was a sort of weird reflection, but it got the job done. She pushed me in front of it and I took a look at the person in it.

The Wanda in front of me was wearing a purple shirt with a blue thing underneath it, jeans and killer heels, and I meant that literally. What surprised me the most was that I actually had curves! I never thought that it would be possible until this body started to grow and fill out, but Mel's clothes seemed to be magical and the result was a very curvy figure.

"What do you think?" Mel asked, practically bouncing off her heels.

"It looks awesome," I replied honestly.

"Really?!"

I giggled. "Really."

She started to scream and I covered my ears until she hugged me around the shoulders, so I hugged her back.

"Thank you for lending me your clothes, Mel."

"Psh, it was nothing." She took another look at me. "You know what, keep them."

"What? No, I couldn't do that, they're yours."

"But they definitely fit you better, I mean, have you looked at your reflection?"

I blushed and she laughed.

"Seriously, keep them. I can guarantee that Ian will want you to wear it again. Then again, he could never want you to wear them again, the way that you look so delectable right now, he'll probably be very protective."

"Shut up, he will not be."

She shook her head. "You'll see. I guarantee that his jaw drops when you enter the room. There might even be a little drool too."

"You're insane. I mean, look at you! How could I even compare to this!" I motioned towards the dress that she must have slipped on when she stepped out of the room. It was a strapless, floor length number, with a massive slit all the way up her right leg that showed a lot of skin.

"Oh you. You look gorgeous and that's all that matters."

"But I feel like you're always giving me your clothes," I protested.

"Wanda, I don't care. We can always get more on the way out. But just remember that this is not my present to you, I have a bigger and better one waiting for you," she finished in a sort of sing-song voice and I rolled my eyes.

"Knock knock!" a voice called out from the door and we both looked over to see Sunny entering the room.

"Sunny!" I called out to her and she bounced over to us.

"You forget something?" she asked Mel, who looked confused until Sunny produced a camera from behind her back.

"Oh my god, Ian's going to killll me!" she exclaimed, snatching it from Sunny's hands.

"What?" I asked.

"Ian wants us to take a lot of pictures of today, for whatever reason," Mel asked, snapping one of me standing there.

"But how did you even get them? How will you get the pictures developed?" I had tons of questions.

"We got them awhile ago, and we're getting them developed on the next raid," Sunny answered.

"But won't that just give us away if we have them delivered and there isn't any silver in anyone's eyes?"

"Nope, not if we do it ourselves and then leave," Mel pointed out and I nodded. "Okay, group shot!" she cried out, squishing me in between her and Sunny to take a few pictures.

"Sunny, can I just say that you look adorable?" I said to her and she flushed.

Mel took her hand a twirled her around so that we could get a good look at her. She was wearing a white halter top that had pink prints on it and a white mini skirt with a cute pair of small heels.

"I take it Ian's ready?" Mel asked once Sunny was facing us again and she nodded.

"Yeah, he sent me up here to get you guys to start heading down there," she confirmed. "Ready?" she asked me and I shook my head.

Melanie rolled her eyes before hooking her arm through mine, guiding me towards the door.

"Course she is ready, right Wanda?" she sounded kind of threatening, so I nodded right away.

"Perfect."

Melanie then swept me from the room, pausing for Sunny to put the red door back before she joined onto my other arm and the three of us walked down the hall into the main room together.

"Now, you have to act surprised when we walk in there, Wanda, I technically wasn't supposed to tell you, but I figured that you would absolutely flip out if nobody warned you," Mel advised me.

"You're more than right," I said to her before we came to a full stop.

"I usually am. Okay, I'm going to hold my hands over your eyes and carefully take you to the place where everyone is waiting for us. Sunny is going to hold you from the back just to make sure that you don't fall, right?"

"Right," Sunny said from behind me and I could feel her hands on my back.

Mel covered my eyes without warning and told me to walk. After a few minutes I spoke up.

"You guys, is this really necessary?"

"You bet it is," Sunny said.

"Just a few more feet, Wanda, okay?" Mel asked and I couldn't do anything but nod and concentrate on not falling over on the uneven rock.

Could hear our footsteps echo off of the walls before they stopped me; I had no idea where we were.

"Ready? One... two... three..." Melanie counted down before removing her hands from my eyes.

"SURPRISE!" a whole lot of people yelled out at the same time and my jaw dropped in shock.

It turned out that we were standing in the kitchen after all, but I hardly recognized it as the room was decorated to the nines. I looked around and saw almost everyone in the caves was present. Jamie, Jared and Kyle were standing on my right while Jeb and Doc were on the left.

I could see Freedom and Isaiah running around, asking if they could tell me the secret yet; but the face that was the most prominent was Ian's. His beaming face seemed to stand out from everybody else's as he came forwards and enveloped me in a huge hug, lifting my feet clear off the ground.

"Happy Birthday, Wanda," he whispered in my ear, kissing my cheek lightly before capturing my lips in his.

**Ian POV**

I jumped out of bed early that morning and grabbed the shirt that I would need for later on, throwing on a pair of jeans quickly. The sound that I made in the process seemed to have bothered Wanda, as she turned onto her stomach and groaned before falling fast asleep again. A smile crept up on my face as I tip-toed over to her and gave her a quick kiss on the head. Then I very quietly exited the room, practically running down the hall.

The smile was still plastered on my face as I entered the main room and saw Jared waiting for me. He nodded, as it was clearly too early for him to speak before he fell into step with me, heading off to the kitchen.

Today was the day, this was when all our planning would finally come together; Wanda's birthday. I knew that she didn't want us to do anything, but I was determined to throw a party for her anyways. I wanted it to be the best party of her human life.

Once we arrived in the kitchen, I saw all my helpers there and ready for me, mingling with each other. Sunny, Kyle and Melanie were sitting in a booth, looking over what looked like CDs while Jeb and Doc were arguing over something. Jamie skipped up to meet us, handing both Jared and I a cup of water and a roll.

"Thanks, kid," I said, taking the goods from him. "Do you have my list?"

"Of course I do, Ian," he replied, producing a neat little folder that he had been hiding in his room for me so that Wanda wouldn't find it.

I opened it up to the list of things that needed to be done for today.

"Okay," I announced and everyone quieted down. "We've got to decorate this room, all the stuff is at the back in those boxes over there," I nodded towards a neat stack that had been taken out of storage earlier.

"I have a drawing here of where everything goes, so please refer to it." I placed the drawing on the table nearest me for extra emphasis.

"We also need to get the other room up and going; that includes lights and sounds."

"I'm on it," Kyle said to me.

"So's Doc and I," Jeb piped up and I nodded.

"Alright. That stuff is already in there, here's another drawing of the placement of things," I handed it to Jeb who nodded and left with Doc in his wake.

I looked at Kyle. "Are you not going?"

"We're finalizing the playlists," Melanie answered and I shook my head.

"Okay, Sunny you, Lily, Heidi, Candy and Lucina; whenever they get here..."

"We're here."

I turned around to see Lily and the girls standing in the doorway.

"Oh, good. Well you're on food preparation."

Lilly nodded and led the way to the back of the kitchen to get started.

"We got the cake done last night," Lucina said to me on the way by. "That way we could bake it properly. She's going to love it."

I was not expecting that from her; I know that she had been more accepting of Wanda, especially since her boys had taken to Wanda a lot, but I didn't think that she would go out of her way to help us.

"Thank you," I said to her and she just smiled.

"Right then," I continued. "That leaves Jared, Jamie, Melanie, Paige, Brandt, Andy and I to decorate this room."

Jared, Jamie, Mel and I started to get to work, unpacking the boxes at the back and setting everything out in the general area that it was supposed to go in. Kyle left soon after we started to work, so Sunny went back into the kitchen. We started to hand the big banner when Paige, Brandt and Andy showed up.

"Oh! Oh! Can I do the balloons?" Paige asked excitedly, half sprinting over towards them.

"Sure," I chuckled and she clapped with excitement.

"Here, I'll help you," Melanie said to her, climbing down off the ladder to join her.

Andy took Mel's place and with a little help from the girls down below we got it centered and perfectly straight. My arms felt like jelly from holding it up for so long, but Mel had to make sure that it was absolutely in the right spot before we could even move.

I shook them out a little before digging around for some other things to hang up when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see Trudy, Geoffrey and Heath standing there.

"Is there anything we can do?" Trudy asked me.

"Well, I think that we're okay here for now. But you could go down to the games room; I'm sure that Kyle could use all the help he could get."

They all laughed, knowing that it was probably true and left in that direction.

"Wanda's going to be so surprised," Paige exclaimed and accidentally let go of a balloon that zoomed around the room before falling flat on the floor.

"Oops," she said, walking to retrieve it while we all burst out into laughter.

Once we had calmed down she spoke again.

"But I know she is. She won't want us to do it, of course, but I can't wait to see the look on her face when she walks through the door!"

I chuckled. "Neither can I, Paige."

I looked up at a crack in the ceiling now to see that the sun was way over head.

"Crap. Mel, can you go and start getting Wanda ready? If she's not already up, get her up and distract her. I'll send Sunny down when we're ready."

Both she and Paige began jumping in excitement then and Melanie tied off her last balloon before turning to leave the room.

"Wait Mel, don't forget...!" she was gone before I finished. "A camera..."

"She's excited, leave her be," Jared said from his perch on the wall.

"What exactly are you doing?" I asked him.

"Hanging this up, duh. What does it look like I'm doing?"

He was stretched out over several rocks and reaching up as far as he could to try and tape the end of a streamer to the wall. The way that he was positioned, it look like he was rock climbing.

"It looks like you're trying to hold on for dear life and not fall into a pit of alligators or something," I said, shaking my head and turning to climb up a ladder.

"Jared, if you fall, Melanie's not going to be too happy," Jamie warned. "And you'll ruin Wanda's party!"

"I'm not going to fall, Jamie, calm down," Jared replied, jumping off of his perch and landing hard on the floor. "See? No harm done."

To my surprise, as Jared and I were hanging up another streamer, Sharon and Maggie came wandering into the kitchen.

"Is there anything we can do?" Maggie asked.

"You can help me blow up these... balloons," Paige said, trying to catch her breath. "I'm like dying over here since Mel left."

"You don't have to do all of those yourself," I told her but she shrugged.

"I'll just get a glass of water and I'll be fine," she said to me, skipping off to fetch herself one.

Sharon and Maggie began to blow up more balloons while Andy and Brandt began the impossible task of hanging them all up. I was really glad that Jared had grabbed that extra pack of tape when we were on our last raid; we seemed to go through it like water.

"Ian you want these in like an arch?" Andy asked and I looked at them, holding balloons everywhere; between their knees, under their arms, it was quite the sight.

"Well, that was the idea," I descended off the ladder and went to stand with them. "If it doesn't work out, that won't be the end of the world."

"What if you made like columns of them?" Sharon suggested and we just looked at her.

"I don't get it," Brandt admitted and she rolled her eyes, passing a balloon off to Maggie to tie.

"Like this."

She took about six balloons and a string from somewhere and tied all the little ends to the string. When she held it up, it created a column of balloons.

"Tada!"

We clapped for her, but she swatted at us.

"It's not that difficult. Now you just have to tie the end of the string to a rock to hold it down so that it doesn't escape."

"Thanks Sharon!" I thanked her, grabbing a piece of string to start the next one to help them along; we were running out of time quickly.

"How many of these do you want?" Andy asked.

"Ahhh, how about six, just to be on the safe side."

"Well, we've got enough balloons for about thirty," Paige pointed out, wading through all the ones that were on the floor.

"Well," I thought about it. "If we taped some to the walls in here, we could always take whatever's left down to the other room."

"But you're not going to be able to see it very well in there," Jared pointed out.

"Well, I'll leave that up to you guys to decided, I don't really care," I admitted. "Just so long as we're not up to our armpits in balloons later on."

"Alright," they agreed and sorted it out.

Another ten minutes or so passed before the girls came out of the kitchen.

"We're done," Lily announced.

"Excellent, thank you so much girls!" I said to them, smiling.

"You're welcome Ian, anything for Wanda," Candy said.

"Well, we're off to get ready, we'll round up the others and be back here in about five, ten minutes, okay?" Heidi said and I became panicked.

"Sure."

They left and I turned to Jared.

"Are we going to have enough time?" I asked him.

"Don't worry about it," he clapped a hand on my shoulder. "You're over thinking this. Those girls are going to take at least ten minutes to get ready, then they've got to get everyone here. That will be at least twenty, maybe twenty-five until everyone's here and assembled. Why don't you go check on the other room and we'll keep busy here."

I nodded and turned to go.

"Ian?" I looked back to see Sunny following me. "Do you mind if I tag along so that you can send me to get Mel and Wanda when you're ready?"

I was shocked that she wanted to go around with me, and quickly agreed. Together we set off to the other room; I was crossing my fingers that they wouldn't be just starting, you never knew with Kyle in charge. That's when it hit me; Sunny mostly wanted to see Kyle, but didn't want to cross the caves herself. That made more sense.

We entered and I was not prepared for what I saw.

They were completely done. There were a few more bodies in there than I knew about, but everything was set up and ready to go. I was amazed.

"What do you think?" Kyle asked, coming over to sling an arm around my shoulders and one around Sunny's waist, giving her a quick kiss on the head.

"I think that if you kiss me I'll have to hit you," I replied.

"No, idiot, what do you think of the room?"

"I'm impressed," I admitted. "There might be a few balloons coming down here later, that has yet to be decided, but I'll get whoever brings them down to take care of that. The rest of you can go get ready, I suppose."

"Glad to hear it," Kyle said, removing his arm. "You okay?" he asked me.

"Ah, yeah. Well, I'm getting a little nervous. What if she totally freaks out?" I admitted as people filed out of the room.

"Ian, you know her better than anyone, there is no one else who could have pulled off a party like this for her," Kyle said and I nodded.

"He's right, you know," Sunny added. "She's going to be blown away."

I smiled.

"Hey Sunny you want to go get yourself ready and then bring Mel and Wanda down to the kitchens? I think that we're ready," I asked her and she nodded.

Together the three of us left the caves, but Sunny and Kyle went back in the direction of their cave to change and I went back to the kitchen. To my surprise, there was already a few people milling around, waiting for this to start.

Freedom bounded up to me and hugged my knees, so I picked him up.

"What do you think?" I asked him, carrying him into the room.

"There's lots of balloons," he answered honestly for a kid his age and I laughed.

"Do you like the balloons?"

"Yes I do!"

"Alright, if you're good tonight, then I'll let you have some balloons before you go, okay?" I whispered in his ear before pulling away and seeing his eyes light up with excitement.

He nodded immediately and clapped.

"But it's our little secret, okay?" he nodded again and I smoothed his hair before putting him back down.

Jared and Jamie were already changed and talking to people; Jared wearing a blue collared t-shirt and Jamie a yellow one. We had all got similar shirts awhile ago; we had no choice in color, Mel told me us all exactly what color to get. I knew that Kyle was in black. I removed the ratty shirt that I was wearing and replaced it with the green one I was instructed to wear.

Not too long after I arrived, everyone started coming into the room in masses. The entire caves had shown up for this event, and it was making me all the more nervous.

"Dude, what's gotten into you?" Jared asked, making me jump.

"Just nervous."

"Don't worry about it, she'll love it. Everything is perfect and this is going to be one kick-ass party!"

He practically yelled the last part and a few people cheered at that. I glanced around and saw that a small table had a pile of gifts on it. I was happy about that; I would make her open them in front of everyone, that way she couldn't try and give them back. Even if she did try, there would be a roomful of people pressuring her into taking them anyways.

"They're coming!" Jamie hissed, ducking his head out of the door before running back inside.

"She didn't see you, did she?" I asked, worried that our cover was blown.

"No, no. Mel has her eyes covered and everything. Get into places!" he half-shouted at everyone as the assembled and the noise level dropped to nothing.

I was standing in the middle as Melanie's back came into view. She was wearing some sort of dress that looked very ripped, but I only had eyes for what Wanda was wearing. I could see that she was in heels from the way that they made noise on the rocks. She had on a pair of jeans and a purple shirt, from what I could see.

Mel started counting down then, and my heart seemed to be racing out of my chest.

"One...two...three!"

She removed her hands and stepped out of the way so that I could see my Wanderer.

I couldn't help but grin as I saw her look around the room in awe as everyone yelled out, but to be honest, I couldn't hear what they were yelling. I only had eyes for her.

She was wearing this purple shirt that was very low cut, but I could see that underneath there was a blue sort of tube top, giving her a little coverage so she wasn't so exposed. That top paired with the jeans and the shoes was enough to make me want to rip her from the room and cover her up so that no one else could lay eyes on her. I felt my jaw drop and very animalistic thoughts ran through my head.

I walked towards Wanda, unable to stand there and not touch this beautiful creature anymore and wrapped her up in a gigantic hug once I reached her. I lifted her feet up off the ground and held her tight.

"Happy Birthday Wanda," I whispered into her ear before kissing her very pink cheek and pressing my lips to hers, catching her completely off guard. She looked amazing.

**Links to all clothing are on my profile, so check them out! : ) I love searching for clothes and had a liiitle too much fun with these!**

**Review! : )**


	2. I'll Take Care Of You

**A/N: Well, here's an update for you all! I'm glad that you're enjoying it thus far, after only one chapter! : )**

**Thanks to TopKat90, Ms. Disturbance, Vanessa-Wolfe303, Anaeli, EdwardAlways and EagleGirl12 for your awesome reviews! : )**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. Vanessa-Wolfe303 is responsible for the plot; I just brought her idea to life.**

**Wanda POV**

Saying I was surprised would have been an understatement; I was definitely overwhelmed by all of this, and I hadn't taken more than three steps into the room. Ian and I broke away and I could feel the intense heat on my cheeks after this little display of affection in front of everyone. Ian cupped my cheeks with his hands and just beamed down at me. His smile was contagious and I ended up giving him a huge smile back. He gave me one last kiss before taking my hand and pulling me forwards into the crowd where I seemed to be swallowed up by everyone.

Freedom and Isaiah ran up to me and they both gave me hugs around my legs. I picked up Freedom and he wrapped his arms around my neck, resting his head on my left shoulder. I then was greeted by a lot of people at once and once again felt overwhelmed at all the well wishers. I glanced at Ian for help and he nodded.

"Alright everyone, we can have some time to chat later, but for now we should all take a seat and—"

"Open presents!" Mel cried out and everyone cheered.

I looked over at Ian and he just smiled, guiding me forwards towards my seat with a hand on the small of my back. They couldn't actually expect me to accept gifts; I mean, I specifically asked them not to get me anything. I sat down in what evidently was my seat, as it was draped in streamers and balloons and Freedom jumped down out of my lap to run over to the over flowing table of gifts to retrieve something.

I took this opportunity while everyone was finding a spot to sit to look around the room and see exactly what everyone had done to the kitchen. There was a big paper banner hanging from the ceiling that looked like it had been homemade and read "Happy Birthday Wanda!" I saw that everyone had signed it. Across the walls were different decorations; some kiddie in a way, I noticed a donkey by the door with a target on his bum by the door. I figured that they would appease the kids for a little while at least; maybe that was the goal.

There were also pictures that I didn't even know that people had taken of me. I couldn't really see them, I would have to get up close, but I did not remember taking a whole lot of pictures. Ian had obviously been planning this for a long time in order to get so many of them. Either that or he had been arming people with camera over the last few days and I was just completely oblivious to it all.

On either side of the door were two sets of balloon columns, one pink and one white on each side. I noticed that there were others floating around in different colors; anything from green and blue to purple and black. They were taped to the walls and the booths and even the ceiling. I couldn't help but to smile taking it all in.

"What do you think?" Ian whispered into my ear.

"I think that it's wonderful," I whispered back to him.

"Really?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

"Well, to be honest, art of me was expecting you to completely freak out about me doing this for you," he admitted and I turned to kiss his cheek.

"Well, you know that I would have been happy if you didn't do anything, but still. I know how much work you put into this and it shows. Thank you, Ian."

He grinned and gave me a fast kiss.

"Presents, Wanda?"

"Do I have to," I groaned quietly in his ear.

"Do you really want to disappoint all these people that spent time and effort on finding you the perfect gift?"

I thought about it and shook my head.

"Didn't think so," he chuckled before standing up.

Freedom crawled back into my lap and looked up at me expectantly.

"Open it," he said with pure excitement written on his face.

I smiled and began to pull the bow on top of the box, letting it fall to the floor. I saw the wrapping paper on the outside and tore a little piece off.

"Do you want to help me?" I whispered into his ear and he nodded eagerly.

I held the box out and he tore right into it, just like I knew he would. We were just down to the box then and he looked up at me, waiting for me to open it. I giggled and took the top off, rifling through the paper until I found it. I reached in and pulled out a little beaded bracelet. It had various colors to it and no sort of pattern, but it was precious all the same.

"Let me put it on!" he exclaimed and grabbed it.

I held out my wrist for him and as he slid it on the crowed 'awed' and a saw a few flashes of cameras going off.

"Did you make this yourself?" I asked him and he nodded.

"All by myself," Freedom announced proudly, taking my wrist and talking to me about all of the beads that he put on it.

"Are you going to keep it on?" he asked then, almost worried about the answer.

"Of course I'm going to keep it on!" I reassured him and gave him a big hug. "In fact, I'm never going to take it off."

His eyes widened at the prospect. "Never?"

"Never ever," I vowed and he started clapping, jumping down from my lap.

"Momma did you hear that? She's never going to take it off!" he ran to her and danced around while everyone laughed a little.

People descended upon me then, I guess they were waiting for the okay to make sure that I wasn't going to put up a fight about the presents before giving them to me. I suppose they were right in a way, I could have been a brat and not accepted anything from them, but I didn't want to be mean or rude to them. After all by the looks of things in here, everyone in the caves had been involved in one way or another for making this day possible.

After what seemed like a few minutes, really, we were down to the last four gifts. Jeb stepped forward then and wordlessly handed me an awkwardly wrapped package, stepping away again. I looked at him curiously, but he just folded his arms and waited for me to continue. Cautiously, I began to unwrap it and once they all fell away, I saw what was inside and couldn't help but to laugh.

It was a pink lantern that was decorated with daisy's and had a curly border around the top and bottom of it. It wasn't glowing; for it needed to be charged, but I loved it all the same.

"Thank you so much Jeb," I said to him, standing up to give him a hug.

"I figured you might need one sooner or later with all the late night trips you seem to be taking lately," he said and I pulled away, blushing.

I had been making frequent trips to the bathroom in the night because I had been drinking a lot of water during the days and I guess that he had noticed.

"Well, thank you," I practically whispered and Ian patted my shoulder in reassurance.

Sunny handed me a heavy box and I wasted no time in tearing through the wrappings on it to find five classic books. I gaped at them in awe before looking up at her and smiling.

"From Kyle and I. We figured that you could use something new to read besides those old books that Jeb has in here," she explained, backing into Kyle who wrapped his arms around her.

"Hey, they are not bad at all," Jeb chimed in, defending himself lightly.

"But I have read them each at least five times," I reminded him and he chuckled.

"Thank you," I said to both of them, hugging them separately and returning to my chair.

"Are we done yet?" I joked lightly.

"Not funny," Mel said, sitting down in the booth across from me and placing a large square object on the table in front of us. "The two most important people in your life are last, no offense to the rest of you," she said to the others and they laughed politely. "Well, go on," she encouraged me and I opened it up.

Underneath all the paper was a black book. It looked plain until Mel grabbed it and turned it over. On the front was a picture of Melanie and I with our arms around each other. I remembered taking that one. It had two silver lines that intersected in the bottom left-hand corner and under the picture of us were three words, 'Live, Laugh, Love."

"Mel," I whispered, but she interrupted.

"Open it up."

I nodded and opened the cover.

On the inside were pages and pages filled with pictures of people in the caves. A lot of them had me in them. I recognized a few from when we posed for them, not knowing that she was actually going to have the picture developed, or even that there was film or whatever in the camera. The majority of the pictures were of Mel and I doing various things, being goofy in a number of them.

Towards the back were pages filled with Ian and I. I touched them briefly, tears spilling over at the thought and care that Mel had put into this book.

"Mel, it's beautiful," I said, looking up at her through my tear-filled eyes.

"Oh no, please don't cry," she pleaded as I stood up. "Now you're going to get me going too."

Mel stood up and I hugged her tight, standing up on my tip-toes to do so. It felt like it was just her and I in the room, as I couldn't even really see anyone else there.

"Thank you so much," I said and she sniffled.

"You're welcome, Wanda. You so deserve all of this."

Her words made me cry again and we embraced one last time before pulling away and wiping our eyes. Jared, the ever thoughtful one, offered us a tissue to mop ourselves up with and I graciously accepted.

"Awe dammit, your make-up!" Mel exclaimed, looking over at me.

"What, is it all over?"

"No, you've just wiped it all off." She sighed. "All that hard work for nothing, huh?"

I giggled as she wiped the remainder of it off my face.

"Don't worry, I'll redo it later for you," she said fondly, kissing my cheek. "Happy Birthday, Wanda."

"Thanks Mel."

"Now sit down, there's one more for you!"

She pushed my shoulders and guided me back to my chair. To my surprise, I didn't land on the cold stone that I was sitting on before, but instead on something much softer. I looked up to see Ian's eyes looking down at me as his arms circled around me, holding me in his lap.

"I was going to give you this in private, but I figured that everyone would want to see your reaction, and I didn't want to be so selfish, so I'm giving it to you here," he explained, reaching into his pocket for something.

He pulled out a small blue box with a simple silver bow on the top of it.

"Happy Birthday Wanda. I love you so much," he said into my ear, hugging me tight.

I grinned and kissed his cheek which was right beside me before turning to the little blue box. My fingers were shaking as I carefully reached for it.

"Part of me doesn't want to open it at all, it looks so beautiful," I admitted.

"Just do it!" Jared shouted out.

"Get it over with already!" I heard someone in the back say and I smiled. I could feel Ian shaking with laughter, but I resisted swatting him.

I took a deep breath before giving the ribbon a gentle tug and it came apart. Ian took it out of my hands and laid it on the table beside us. I held the box in my hands and lifted the top off of it. What was inside took my breath away. I couldn't help but to gasp and my eyes clouded again with tears as I took in the sight of it.

Nestled inside was a beautiful necklace and a matching pair of earrings. On the necklace, there was a simple blue raindrop pendant hanging from it on a simple gold chain. The earrings had the same raindrops on them, dangling from a chain that was very similar to the one on the necklace.

"Ian," I whispered, but he shushed me.

Very gently he reached around me and delicately took the necklace out of the box. He held it up in front of me and I could hear the crowd around us gasp at the sight.

"Hold up your hair, Wanda," he said to me and I complied, trying not to hit him in the face in the process.

Ian slowly brought it to my neck and I touched it as the coldness of the pendant touched my skin. I could feel him do up the clasp and give it a kiss, letting his arms wrap around me again. I let my hair down gently and Mel spoke up.

"Put the earrings in, Wanda," she said gently from Jared's embrace.

I smiled and reached for the box, carefully removing one earring and putting it through my ear lobe, attaching the clasp on the back. I did the same with the other one and Ian kissed my cheek as I was putting the clasp on the back.

"How did you—?" I started to ask, but he placed two fingers on my lips, stopping me.

"It doesn't matter how. None of that matters, Wanda."

He wiped away the few tears that had escaped my eyes and kissed my cheek again while I leaned back into him. Someone announced that it was time to eat and everyone scurried away, leaving Ian and I sitting there. I wondered how he was able to get a hold of a necklace like this. I played with it while thinking. He would have had to go right into a sore, in the middle of the day with all those Souls around. Surely someone would have noticed him wandering around, so how did he do it?

"Wanda?" he asked me.

"Hm?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"I'm still wondering how you were able to get this," I admitted. "You would have been seen, right? I don't understand..."

"Wanda, I don't want you to worry about this. It's your birthday; you shouldn't have to think about the how's or the why's. Nothing is impossible, love; remember that."

I shook my head and slid off of his lap as people started bringing out the food. I started to stand to go and get ours, but Ian grabbed my hand as someone put a hand on my shoulder to stop me. I looked up to see Lily with her hand on my shoulder.

"Sit, Wanda. We're going to serve your table. The rest of them can fend for themselves," she told me with a smile, setting down a bowl of salad on the table.

"I... well... thank you?" I said, and she giggled, kissing my cheek before looking at my necklace. "It really is beautiful, Wanda."

I smiled as she turned away and I looked over at Ian.

"That's not fair that they're doing that to just our table," I said to him and he laughed.

"Wanda, they honestly don't mind. This day is all about you; let them do whatever they would like to do."

I sighed. "Alright."

To my astonishment, a bowl of potatoes and carrots were placed on the table before a big plate of meat was put in the center by Kyle.

"What is it?" I asked, and he laughed, sitting down across from Ian as Sunny sat beside him.

"It's roast beef," Jared answered, sitting down on the other side of me while Mel sat beside Sunny.

"How?" I asked, turning to look at Ian once again, who was smiling at me.

"Wanda, it doesn't matter how. Remember? Nothing is impossible," he repeated, kissing my forehead.

"Let's eat!" Jared called out, dishing potatoes onto my plate.

I smiled at the scene. Here I was, sitting at a booth with the people that I love the most in this world, eating roast beef of all things, on my birthday. Ian had truly done wonders to pull this off and I would forever be in debt to him.

**Ian POV**

__As we were eating, I found myself just watching Wanda. She looked absolutely beautiful today. There seemed to be an air about her and she was positively glowing. I looked at the necklace around her neck and smiled. It made me eternally hap[y to see it resting there, and to know that she hadn't even tried to refuse it.

I was quite content to just sit there and watch her, but Kyle interrupted me by making kissy faces at me and batting his eyelashes. I rolled my eyes and refrained from reaching across and hitting him. Instead, I settled for giving him a kick in the shins that made him jump and choke on the water he was about to drink.

"Kyle are you okay?" Sunny asked him in a panic.

"I'm fine, Sunny," he told her, between coughs.

I held up a napkin for him to wipe up the little bit that had dribbled down his chin, but he just glared at me instead of taking it. I shrugged and returned it to the spot on my lap, folding my hands together on top of it. To my shock and delight, Wanda reached her right hand over and took my left hand in hers, lacing her fingers with mine.

I smiled and held it with both of my hands. Her small one seemed to disappear in mine. I started playing with her fingers and tracing patterns on the back of it. Someday I would put a ring on her hand so that I could sit there and play with it during moments like these and smile with satisfaction, knowing that she was all mine. I could see a small smile creep up on her face and resisted the urge to lean over and kiss it; I didn't think that would go over well with her at a table with all of her friends, as much as I would have liked to do it.

Eventually they cleared away everyone's dishes. There was a conversation going on, but honestly I wasn't paying that much attention to it. I was just focussed on Wanda and her reaction to everything.

"Ian!"

I looked up to see Lucina glaring at me with her hands on her hips.

"Yeah?"

"I've called your name at least five times," she shook her head.

"Oh, sorry," I apologized.

"I need you to come back to the kitchen for a second," she said to me, turning and walking away.

I sighed and released Wanda's hand, standing up and walking across the table, jumping to the floor in the aisle.

"Ian, that is so gross; we eat on that, you know," Melanie harassed me once I was down.

"So I'll clean it up," I said shrugging my shoulders and walking back into the kitchen.

I got there and Lucina was beaming up at me. She gestured towards a small cake and I took a few steps to look at it. It was small, about the size of my hand and covered in pink icing, with white icing around the top and bottom. They had also written on the top of it in white, "_Happy Birthday Wanda._"

"What do you think?" she asked nervously and I turned to her grinning.

"I think that it's perfect! She'll love it!" I assured her, giving her a big hug.

"Good. I wanted to give her a little one of her own and we've made this bigger one for everyone else." She gestured towards a big square one that was covered in chocolate icing that Lily and Candy were in the middle of cutting up.

I nodded. "No, yeah, it's perfect."

"Okay," Lucina leaned over and stuck a single candle in the middle of it, reaching for a match to light it with. "You know the drill?"

"Course I do, I made it," I replied, looking out and catching Jared's eye, giving him the signal.

He nodded and excused himself from the table, going around and dimming all the lanterns in the room. Lucina lit the candle and I carried it over to the door, hiding behind the little piece of rock until Lily nodded at me and I slowly started walking out with it, careful not to drop it.

As I started taking my first few cautious steps, everyone in the room started singing to Wanda and I couldn't help but to smile. She would be red with embarrassment, but she would look lovely all the same. I neared the table and the candle flickered, so I placed my hand in front of it and it came back to life. Very carefully and gently I placed it onto the table and sliding it in front of Wanda. I looked at her face to see that she was a little red as I had predicted, but she was also beaming and glowing more than ever. I loved to see her like this. She may not like all the attention, but she was worth it.

Once everyone stopped singing, I saw a few flashes from the cameras and Wanda finally looked up at me. I smiled back at her as Melanie spoke.

"Make a wish, Wanda!"

She frowned in confusion until Mel explained what that meant and then she smiled. Wanda closed her eyes, making her wish before taking a big breath and blowing out the candle. The cave erupted in applause and I could see her blushing again. Lucina handed me a knife, fork and a plate as she called out to everyone.

"Cake's ready, come back a get some!"

There was a mad rush of people to get some and Jared climbed out of the booth, so I stepped in. Carrying the plate, fork and knife, I told Wanda to bend down and I stepped over top of her and settled into my original seat.

"You know, you scare me when you do stuff like that," she admitted as I placed everything on the table.

"I'm sorry, Wanda," I apologized. "I don't think I was really thinking when I climbed over you with a knife in my hand. I swear I didn't mean anything—" she silenced me with a small finger on my lips and I couldn't help but to grin.

"I know, it's okay," she reassured me.

"You want to cut it?" I asked her, turning the handle towards her, but she shook her head and pushed the cake in front of me instead.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I don't like knives. Plus, I'll probably screw it up or something," she said and I smiled.

"You would not."

"Just do it for me?"

I couldn't refuse her, so I nodded and cut her a piece, putting it on the plate and pushing it back over to her.

"Aren't you going to have some?" she asked and I shook my head.

"Not right now. I have to be in the mood for sugary things."

"And you're not now?"

"No, sorry Wanda."

"Why are you apologizing?" she asked. "It's not like I'm mad at you or anything."

I shrugged as she took a piece of the cake on her fork and put it in her mouth, closing her eyes. I smiled at watching her before Kyle slammed his fork down and I jumped.

"You know, if you keep smiling like that, your face is going to stick," he told me, pushing a plate of cake in front of me, but I pushed it back. "What, you don't want it?"

I shook my head. "I'm not a big sweets person, you know that."

"I try to do something nice for you, and this is what I get?" he shook his head. "Last time I do that. Oh well, more for me."

"No way, it's mine!" Jared called out. "Ian?"

"I don't care who eats it," I told them and they began to squabble over it.

"This is so good," Wanda said, smiling up at me. "Are you sure that you don't want a piece?"

"I'm sure," I told her, wrapping my left arm around her waist and kissing her temple.

"It's got strawberries in it and everything," she said, taking another bite.

"That's enough, you two!" Melanie cried out. "It's a stupid piece of cake for heaven's sake! You know what? Because you two are being such pansies about it, Sunny and I get it."

To Jared and Kyle's shock, she pulled it between her and Sunny; stuck her fork in it and took a big bite. She then glared at Sunny who followed suit. I couldn't help but laugh at Jared and Kyle's faces and grabbed the camera that was sitting in front of Melanie to take their pictures.

"That is not cool, Ian," Jared growled.

"Yeah, this is your fault to begin with. Now delete them."

I showed Kyle the back. "You can't. I have no access to the photos after they're taken. They're all on the memory cards, but can only be printed off. You know, like the old film cameras."

He shook his head and returned to his solitary piece of cake to wallow.

The rest of dessert went by without incident and Kyle excused himself to go get the games room up and ready. He nodded at me before he left and I nodded back. He ran running from the room and I nuzzled my face into Wanda's hair.

"What is it?" she said, half giggling.

"Nothing, I just love you," I replied in her ear and could feel her blush. "Don't blush, it's the truth."

"I know." She turned to face me. "I love you too."

I smiled and kissed her quickly as to not make her uncomfortable. What I really wanted to do was carry her off to have her to myself and kiss her senseless, but I think that it would be noticed if I just made off with the guest of honour.

About ten minutes later, Kyle returned and gave me the thumbs up. Jared stood from the booth and got up on the table.

"Okay everyone, listen up!" he shouted, but the buzz of conversation still lingered. "Yo! Shut your mouths!" Jared just bellowed at everyone and silence ensued.

"Thank you," he continued and I shook my head. "Now, for the next part of this evening's festivities, we kindly ask that you all make you way down to the games room."

Jared jumped down from the table and held his hand out for Mel to take.

"Think I got the message across?" he asked.

"I think you handled it most admirably," I said to him and he glared at me.

Wanda slid out of the booth and I followed, grabbing her hand in the process. I slid my hand from her so that it was wrapped around her tiny waist and began to lead her from the kitchen. Freedom bounded up to us as we were near the door and started tugging on my pant leg. I bent down to his level and he began whispering in my ear.

"My mom says that I have to go to bed now, can I have my balloon? Was I good enough tonight?"

As is the way that all little kids whisper, the people nearest to us were able to hear and Wanda reached over to grab a column of balloons.

"You were such a god boy tonight, that I'll let you take all of these balloons," she said crouching down with us and handed him the string.

Freedom's eyes lit up like they usually did on Christmas morning and he clapped enthousiastically before stopping.

"What it is?" Wanda asked him.

"Are... are you sure that it's okay for me to have them all?" he was clearly nervous for her answer and was fiddling with his fingers.

"I promise that it is okay for you to have every single balloon on this string," she reassured him and he threw himself at her, giving Wanda a great big hug.

"Thank you," he said to her, before pulling away and grabbing the balloons from her.

As we stood up, we heard his feet scampering towards the back and he started screaming out,

"Momma! Look at all the balloons Ian and Wanda gave me because I was a good boy tonight!"

The crowd chuckled and I started guiding Wanda out of the kitchens. She rested her head on my shoulder while we walked along the hallways and was quiet.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah."

"You just seem unusually quiet."

"It's overwhelming, Ian. It's a lot for me to take in right now," she admitted and I turned to face her in alarm.

"Is it too much?" I was worried that she wouldn't like what we had planned for her next.

"No, no," she picked her head off of my shoulder to look at me. "Well, I mean, yes it is too much, but I know why you did it and I love you for it. But that's not what I meant. It... it's hard for me to believe that all these people came together to help you with something that was for me."

I wrapped both of my arms around her and kissed her head.

"Wanda, trust me, they were all too eager to help me out. We're all family in here, and everyone wanted a hand in making this day special for you. It actually ended up being a little bigger than I had first envisioned because of everyone's help."

"I hope that you—"

"Shh," I shushed her. "I don't want you to worry about what we did. I want you to enjoy it. And I also don't want to have to tell you that again."

She giggled her adorable little laugh and nodded in agreement.

"Okay."

We rounded the corner nearing the games room and that's when I saw exactly what happened to a lot of those extra balloons. They were individually taped to the wall in no specific order; all colors were all over the walls. I couldn't help but to smile at the creativeness of my little team; they had done well. We stepped into the games room and all the lights were out, so we could barely see our hands in front of our faces; just how I wanted it to be.

"Ian, I can't see a thing in here," she said. "We'd better not be playing a game of soccer."

I laughed and kissed her hand that was in mine.

"No, no soccer game today, Wanda. Sorry."

"I'm not sorry about that," she admitted and I laughed.

"Ready Wanda?" I asked and heard her sigh.

"Yes."

"Really?"

"No. Just get it over with."

I smiled and clapped three times.

After my third clap echoed off the walls around us and nothing happened, I began to panic. If Kyle had screwed this up then I was going to kill him. After a much delayed ten seconds, the room and all its lights came to life, illuminating the cramped space.

I heard Wanda gasp beside me and I turned to her in horror that something had happened, only to see her looking around at everything in awe. Her jaw had dropped and her eyes lit up in wonder as she began to slowly turn around on the spot, trying to take everything in at once.

"What do you think?" I asked her, nervously.

"It's... magical and wonderful and I love it!" she gushed, wrapping her arms around me.

I laughed away all my worries and hugged her back.

"Alright people, let's get this party started!" Kyle shouted over the microphone and everyone that was behind us cheered and raced out into the middle of the room as the first song started playing.

Wanda and I stood there and let them pass, watching them go by us. I had no intentions of moving, I was quite content to stand here with Wanda for the rest of the evening, but I knew that we would have to move eventually. I decided to let her lead us and tightened my hold on her. Everything that I had planned had gone over perfect; I couldn't ask for anything better.

**Wanda POV**

Walking into the games room was definitely an experience. I never would have thought that they could pull something like this off. All the walls were draped in different colors of fabric to cover up the stone. There were pulsating lights all over and in the middle was a sort of makeshift dance floor. I could see Kyle up in a booth where he was playing music and activating the lights. I literally had to turn around on the spot to take everything in.

"What do you think?" Ian asked me nervously, and it was really cute how worked up he was getting over my reaction.

"It's... magical and wonderful and I love it!" I told him, giving Ian a really big hug to hopefully show a little bit of my appreciation.

Ian laughed, seeming to let go of any sort of nervousness he was bottling up and hugged me back.

"Alright people, let's get this party started!" Kyle shouted exclaimed and everyone started shouting and running past us to start dancing to some song that had come on.

Ian and I stayed where we were, wrapped in each other's embrace and I loved it. From where we were we could see everyone dancing and enjoying themselves. I was really proud of all the hard work that Ian had gone to to pull this off for me. I had to admit that I was having a really good time, and although deep down I felt a little guilty about it, I wasn't letting it show. I was pushing that emotion away and concentrating on the moment.

"Do you want to dance?" Ian asked me and I looked up at him.

"Ian, I can't dance," I admitted and he smiled.

"And you think I can? Don't worry, I'll be right there."

I sighed. "Alright."

Ian grinned at me before pulling me out onto the dance floor and putting his hands on my hips.

"You don't have to worry about the moves so much as finding a rhythm that works for you," he instructed me, gently swaying my hips to the music.

"Are you sure I can do this?" I asked him and he gave my forehead a kiss.

"I am positive. I can't dance either, but that's not stopping me."

I smiled and followed his lead. When I danced with Ian it was surprisingly much easier than trying to do it alone. I looked up to see him smiling and I reached up to wrap my arms around his neck; it seemed like the natural thing to do. As a result, it brought our bodies closer together and I smiled at the contact.

Just then the crowd around us starting singing some song that I had never heard of before.

"_Voulez-vous (ah-ha) Take it now or leave it (ah-ha) Now it's all we get (ah-ha) Nothing promised, no regrets..."_

"Kyle and Mel chose the playlist," Ian explained and I laughed.

"I like it," I said as we swayed together and he wrapped his arms around my waist, bringing us even closer.

After the song was over and fading into another one, I felt someone tugging on my arm and I turned to see Mel standing there.

"Come on!" she yelled over the music. "This one's for the girls! You, me, and Sunny!" Sunny appeared from behind her where Mel evidently had a vice-like grip on her arm too.

"Go ahead," Ian said in my ear, releasing me and I was dragged into the very middle by Mel.

I sort of stood there awkwardly why Sunny and Mel began to dance.

"Why do you look like a deranged monkey?" Mel asked me and I shrugged.

"I can't dance."

"Bull shit. Just sway to the music, don't just stand there!"

I tried to do as she instructed, but I'm pretty sure that I looked very awkward and uncoordinated.

"That's it! There you go!" she yelled and I guessed I was doing it right. "Okay, ready? Sing with us!"

She and Sunny, to my astonishment, along with probably the rest of the female population in the caves at the moment started belting out the lyrics to the song and I sort of just stood there.

"_Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight, won't somebody help me take the shadows away. Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight, take me through the darkness to the break of the day."_

We continued to dance, and I tried to remember some of the lyrics for the next time that part came around and I tried to sing along with them, messing up a few words. When I screwed up, Mel, Sunny and I just dissolved into giggles. When this song faded into the next one, I tried to look around and find Ian, but Melanie grabbed my arm again.

"Just leave him be, he'll need to cool down after a dance like that," she said to me, continuing to dance to the new one.

"What do you mean?" I yelled back.

"He'll have a little problem to take care of, that's for sure."

"What?"

She shook her head and grabbed my hand, dancing around.

"Sing, Wanda!" Sunny cried out.

"I don't know the words!" I yelled back.

She shrugged. "Make them up!"

When the chorus came around, we all tried to sing them together. It was truly a song that from then on would belong to us three.

"_That's all they really want, is some fun! When the working day is done, oh girls they wanna have fun, oh girls just wanna have fun!"_

When the girl started singing something about hiding a girl from the world, Mel spun me around and I played it up a little bit, shaking my hips. She cat called at me and I laughed. I really was having the time of my life.

That song ended and I convinced them that I needed to sit the next one out. I really wasn't feeling the greatest, but I wasn't going to openly admit it to them and freak them out. I grabbed a glass of water and sat in one of the available seats that were along the wall. I carefully sipped it and noticed that my stomach was starting to hurt. I passed it off as a stomach cramp or something from all the dancing and didn't think anything of it.

Ian came to sit beside me and held my hand.

"Are you having fun?"

I nodded. "This is so much fun. Thank you so much. I know that you put a lot of work into this for me and I really appreciate it. Thank you."

"You're more than worth it, Wanda," Ian said to me as he leaned in a quickly kissed my lips.

I smiled as he pulled away, but he frowned a little.

"What is it?"

"Are you sure that you're feeling okay?" he asked, placing a hand on my forehead. "You feel a little warm."

"It's probably just from the dancing," I told him, not about to let him in on the pain in my stomach. It would probably go away quickly anyways.

"Wanda," he said in a sort of warning voice.

"Ian, I'm fine," I said, smiling at him. "Trust me. I would tell you if something was wrong."

"Would you?"

I looked him right in the eyes. "Of course I would." I hated lying to him, but I didn't want to ruin this night for him. "Now why is she singing about flies on the wall?"

He chuckled and dropped it. There was my Ian.

"It's some girl that was famous awhile ago. She was always a little odd, if you know what I mean. Well, to me she was. Might have had something to do with the age difference between us, I don't know."

I giggled and looked out at everyone dancing. As we were sitting there, the pain began to increase, and it took a lot out of me not to wince at it every few seconds. A few minutes later the music was cut off and Kyle began to speak.

"Alright, everyone this next song is for Ian and Wanda!" The crowd cheered as a spotlight was shone on us and I cringed away from it. "Come on out here! Everyone clear a path for them."

"I guess that's us," Ian said, pulling me up.

Lily took the cup out of my hand as we walked by her in the path that everyone had made for us leading to a circle in the middle of the floor. Ian stopped us and I nervously turned towards him. I couldn't dance in front of all of these people without making a fool of myself.

Once I looked into Ian's eyes, all my far disappeared and I just concentrated on looking at him. He took my right hand in his and I wrapped the left around his shoulder while his big arm came to rest around my waist. We slowly began to sway to the music and I listened to the lyrics.

"_Keep your eyes locked on mine and let the music be your guide..."_

I decided to take the music's advice and looked up into Ian's blue eyes. I barely registered that there was a single spotlight on us and that there were hundreds of eyes on us. All I concentrated on was Ian and I.

"_Now won't you promise me, that you'll never forget to keep dancing wherever we go next..."_

I sighed happily and lay my head on Ian's shoulder as he brought me closer to him.

"_It's like catching lightning the chances of finding someone like you. It's one in a million the chances of feeling the way we do. And with every step together, we just keep on getting better. So can I have this dance? Can I have this dance?"_

I felt a few tears leak out just listening to the song. It was powerful and described Ian and I perfectly. The song may have had the intention of being about dancing, but underneath, it was about love and being there for each other. I loved this song; it was not mine and Ian's for all of eternity. But, as all things go, the song had to end and another fast one came on. I danced with Ian for about half of it before being taken away by Paige and Lily.

We danced together and a few more people joined us until a whole lot of people were surrounding me and I felt trapped. My stomach pains weren't getting any better; in fact it felt like someone was stabbing me with a knife and ripping apart my insides. I was a clammy and gross and had to get out of there.

I excused myself to get another drink and quickly downed it, grabbing another one. I sat down again as I could feel the familiar feeling in the back of my throat that happens when your dinner is about to make a reappearance. I closed my eyes and tried to think of other things so that it wouldn't happen.

"Wanda, are you okay?" I jumped as Mel placed a hand on my shoulder and opened my eyes to see her kneeling in front of me, looking concerned.

"I'm okay, I just have to go the washroom real quick, okay?"

She nodded tentatively. "Want me to go with you?"

"No, no. I'll be really quick, like two minutes, I promise."

I stood up and Mel took the cup from me as I made my way out the door, following the hall until I got out of it and turned in the direction of the washroom. Once I knew that I was alone, I curled over in pain, wrapping my arms around my stomach. I was in so much pain by then that I thought I was going to die.

**Mel POV**

After Wanda left the games room, I started frantically scanning the cave for Ian. If she wouldn't let me go with her, she would let Ian near her. I finally spotted him standing against the wall with Jared, Brandt and Aaron and I marched over towards them.

"Hey babe," Jared said to me once I got close enough, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

"Hi," I said to him before turning to face Ian. "Ian, you need to go after Wanda."

Sheer panic crossed his face and he looked around for her.

"Where is she?"

I gulped. He was not going to be happy about this.

"She... she. I don't think she's feeling very well, Ian. I just talked to her and she was very pale and clammy and just didn't look good. She just left to go to the washroom like two minutes ago."

"And you didn't go with her?" he asked, anger and concern now dominant on his face.

"No, I'm sorry. You know how she is, she wouldn't let me. But she'll let you near her, so you need to go find her."

He swore and ran his hand through his hair.

"Okay, fine. I'll be back."

Ian then tore off, pushing through the crowd, half running towards the door.

"Now I feel bad," I admitted.

"No, Mel, you did the right thing. She'll be okay," Jared said, trying to reassure me and I nodded.

I really hoped that she was alright.

**Ian POV**

I was so angry trying to fight my way through the crowd. I just wanted more than anything to get to Wanda and find out what I was wrong. Once I was through, I tore through the halls hoping that I got to her in time.

I knew that something was wrong earlier; I should have taken her back to our cave then and not let her keep on dancing. I bet that it didn't help whatever this was. I'll admit that the dance that we had together was certainly magical in every way, but if I had know that she was ill, I would have postponed it.

I booked it towards the washrooms and stopped once I heard a strangled cry.

"Wanda?" I called out, and something whimpered in her tone of voice.

I cursed and flew down the hall towards it. I was not prepared for what I saw.

**Wanda POV**

I couldn't make it any more. The urge to vomit was too great and I collapsed onto the ground wherever I was. Hopefully someone would find my dead body and give me a proper funeral; preferably outside these caves with the others.

I whimpered and clutched my stomach, trying to grab it and make it stop. Even lying on the floor wasn't making it better. I knew that one thing would, and I did not want to do that. I heard footsteps and froze, realizing quickly that not breathing wasn't helping the current situation. Instead, I let out a pathetic cry of pain and heard a voice.

"Wanda?"

_"Oh no, not Ian,"_ I thought. I didn't want him to see me lying here like this. After all his planning that he had done, I didn't want to ruin it. I let out another pitiful whimper and heard the footsteps quicken; as if he was running.

"Wanda!?" he cried out once I had evidently came into view.

Ian ran to me and dropped to his knees by my side. I looked up at him to see that he was tentatively reaching out towards me, as if afraid to touch me. I tried to give him pleading eyes for him to do something, anything to take away this pain.

"Oh Wanda," he relinquished his control and reached over, grabbing me and pulling me so that I was sitting with my back resting against him. "Why didn't you tell me that you didn't feel well? I would have gotten you out of there."

"I know," I said to him. "But I didn't want to ruin your party. You worked so hard—"

"None of that matters right now; none of it. What matters is you and your health, and right now it's taking a nose dive. Tell me, please tell me what is wrong," he begged and I regretted lying to him even more.

"I... I feel like my stomach is being ripped apart I'm in so much pain," I started to tell him. "I'm clammy and feel gross and I feel like I'm about to vomit."

"Oh Wanda," he sighed, touching his cheek to my hair. "Why didn't you say anything before? Wait, I know the answer." He sighed again. "It feels that bad?"

I nodded and he touched my cheek lightly.

"You are pretty warm. Here, sit up for a minute."

I sat up and could hear him rustling behind me, but didn't turn around to see what he was doing. Instead, I bent over as I started coughing and gagging; the inevitable was going to quickly become a reality.

"Lift your arms up, quickly," Ian instructed me and I complied, attempting to sit up straight.

Once whatever it was he was putting over my arms was over them, he gently tugged it over my head and down the rest of my body. I didn't realize that I had closed my eyes until I opened them again to see his green shirt on my body.

"Ian," I started to protest, but he cut me off.

"I don't want you messing up your beautiful shirt."

"And I don't want to get yours all dirty," I said, trying to take it off, but he was faster, holding it down and crushing me once again to his chest.

"Do you still hurt?" I nodded as the sensation came over me again and I couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Ian!" I called out, bending over onto my knees.

"Wanda, I'm right here," he said to me and I could feel the acid burning its way out of my throat, trying to find an exit.

Just as Ian pulled my hair back, it found one, and the contents of my stomach poured out of me. After I finished I felt really embarrassed at what I had just done in front of Ian, but he didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. Instead, he pulled me back so that I was curled against him while he wiped around my mouth with the hem of his shirt.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I repeated to him, but he eventually pressed his fingers to my lips.

"Wanda, I don't want you to apologize. It couldn't have been avoided, don't feel sorry."

We sat there and he held me for a few minutes until the sounds of footsteps were heard and more people came into view, I guessed, as I was facing the other way.

"Oh!" Melanie gasped. "Jared," I heard a smacking sound and could only guess that she had hit him. "Go get some towels and s bucket of water."

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Go, now!"

One set of footsteps faded away from us while the other got closer to us.

"Is she okay?" Mel whispered and Ian shrugged.

"I don't know. Wanda?"

"Mhm?" I murmured.

"How are you feeling?" he asked me gently.

"A little better," the nauseous feeling had disappeared for the time being.

"How's your stomach?" he asked.

"Still hurts," I mumbled, quickly slipping into sleep.

"Go to sleep, Wanda. I'll take care of you. I'll be right here; I'm not going to leave your side," I heard him say to me as my eyelids closed and I drifted to sleep.

**Okay. That was one heck of a writing marathon.  
Anyhoo.  
DID ANYONE WATCH THE CANADA/RUSSIA GAME TONIGHT?!?!?!?!  
HOLY CANNOLI!!!  
It was one heck of a nail biting game! Three periods, then a ten minute overtime, then a shoot out! Magnificent. I haven't seen hockey like that in years. I'll admit; Canada didn't play as well as they could have; they seemed to be searching for the pretty goals and not just shooting at the net like they should have. The Russians took away so many chances because they simply waited too long. Tavares wasn't playing as well as he could have, though it was a beauty goal in the shoot out. But holy crow, Eberle was on FIRE!! My gosh.  
For anyone that missed it and wants to watch highlights, the link to them will be on my profile, or you can just go to ****.ca**

**All links to the songs used in this chapter will also be on my profile, as well as the link to the necklace and the scrapbook.**

**Review! : )  
And GO CANADA GO vs Sweden in the Gold Medal finals on Monday night!!!! : ) : ) : )**


	3. Sick and Tired

**A/N: So. I know that this chapter is very delayed and everything, but a bout of writer's block combined with no internet access equals a delayed posting. Sorry! But. This story is coming to an end, so there should only be a chapter or so left, so it will be out soon, because of having no internet, I have been writing up a storm, so soon it will be up!**

**Thanks to Wolf Babies, sarah12345, Vanessa-Wolfe303, EagleGirl12, Kiara212, Ms. Disturbance, Anaeli, Lizzxotwilght, HarunoRun, meggi115, abbie12333 and Jenniedvm for your awesome reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. Vanessa-Wolfe303 is responsible for the plot; I just brought her idea to life.**

**Ian POV**

Very gently I lifted Wanda up off the ground and tried to balance her in my arms, letting her head rest on my left arm, careful not to drop her.

"Careful," Melanie hissed at me and I gave her a look.

"Right. Like I'm going to let her go," I whispered back sarcastically, looking down at Wanda's sleeping face.

She looked very peaceful, lying across my lap, fast asleep. I freed my right hand from beneath her and brushed her bangs back out of her face. I felt horrible for what had happened to her and wanted more than anything for the roles to be reversed so that she could enjoy her special night and not have to be sick like this.

I could hear Mel sigh beside me and I glanced over to see that she had her hand on Wanda's leg, giving it a soft squeeze.

"Why wouldn't she say anything?" she wondered out loud and it was my turn to sigh.

"Because it's Wanda. As much as I hate to admit it, you know how stubborn she is. She would have wanted to keep this to herself and not let us worry about her."

"I know, but still. Sometimes she irritates me when she does things like that. This is one of those times."

I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit at her comment and look down at Wanda's face again.

I just wished that I knew what exactly was so wrong with her that she was so sick, so that I could make it go away. I noticed that there were light beads of sweat glistening across her forehead and I wiped them away with the back of my hand. When my hand touched her skin, it felt like it was on fire, but she also shivered at the same time and I could see goose bumps forming on her skin. I held her closer to me as she shivered again and I rubbed my right hand up and down her arm, trying to make them disappear.

"Where the hell is Jared?" Mel demanded, looking off in the direction that he took off in. "It seriously shouldn't take this long. I swear, sometimes I wonder about that boy."

I couldn't help but smile at her impatience.

"This is not funny, Ian," she reprimanded me and I apologized as footsteps were heard coming towards us.

"Finally," Melanie muttered.

Jared rounded the corner, but so did two other figures. It wasn't until they got a little closer and I could clearly make out their faces in the lamp lights that I saw that he had brought Doc and Jeb with him.

"Took you long enough," Mel said to Jared once he came over with the cleaning supplies.

"Yeah, well I had to drag these two out of the party as well. I figured that we could use their help sooner or later," he explained and she gave him a little smile.

"Good thinking. But now you can clean this up," she told him, nodding towards the bile that was on the floor and he made a face, but diligently got to work.

I cradled Wanda closer to my body as Doc kneeled down beside us and took her left hand in his, searching for a pulse.

"Can you tell me what happened, Ian?" Doc asked once he had assessed her vitals and began to check her over.

I told him all that I knew and Mel piped in with some information as well, most of it matching what I had told him.

Just then Wanda groaned and woke up, gagging again. Doc backed up away from her as I quickly sat her upright.

"Oh no she doesn't!" Jared yelled out, racing over and placing a bucket in front of her.

Within seconds she had leaned over it and emptied her stomach again. I felt so useless to her as the only thing I could do was hold her hair out of the way and wait for her to finish. She moaned pitifully and leaned back against my bare chest again, wiping her mouth on the bottom of my shirt.

"Wanda?" I asked her and she incoherently answered me, her eyes closing again, falling fast asleep.

"Never mind, love; go to sleep," I told her, kissing her temple and wrapping my arms securely around her.

"Thank God I got there in time," Jared said. "I'd bust a cap if I had to clean that up again." He came over to sit beside Mel and she wrinkled her nose.

"You smell like puke," she told him, inching away.

"Awe, come on Mel. You're the one that made me clean it up," he whined, shaking his head.

"Shut up and go take a bath," she instructed him and defeated, he got up and took the cleaning supplies with him as he took off in the direction of the washroom.

"Well, that was certainly an experience," Jeb commented and I glared at him. "Oh, calm down, Ian. I didn't mean nothing by it."

I ignored him and addressed Doc instead.

"Do you know what it could have been that made her so sick?" I asked him and he shrugged.

"There are a couple of possibilities, but I can't be too sure which one it is," he admitted, looking at her again. "Do you know if she was in any pain?"

Mel shook her head and looked over at me.

"She never said anything about pain to me."

"I...she... she did say something to me about the pain," I recalled slowly, thinking back to our conversation before she threw up the last time.

"Really?" Doc asked, leaning forward towards us a little as if he was trying to hold onto my every word.

"Yeah, she did," I replied, looking down at her sleeping face and touching her cheek lightly.

"Well, what did she say?" he asked, looking right in my eyes as I made eye contact with him again.

"I... she...." I stopped and thought for a second before answering him. "She said that it felt like her stomach was being ripped apart in pain. Then she proceeded to... you know... throw up."

"So she was in pain?" Doc asked, stroking his chin, trying to make a connection, I supposed. "Anything else?"

"Well, she was burning up pretty badly and before she fell asleep, she told me that it was still hurting her. I don't know what it could be, but I really want to figure it out so that I can help her get better. I just feel so useless only being able to tie her hair back and hold her." I paused for a second before speaking again.

"Do you think you can figure it out?" I asked Doc, hopeful that he would know what was wrong with my Wanda.

Doc shook his head and I could literally feel my face falling. I just wanted Wanda to feel better and I was willing to do anything.

"I'm sorry, Ian. I'll do my best to try and solve this, but it would be better for me to observe her when she is awake, you know. When do you think that she will wake up?"

I shrugged and looked down at her again, noting that she was growing warmer by the moment.

"Could we wrap this up? I'd like to take her back to our room so that she could be a little more comfortable," I told them and everyone nodded.

"Yes, let's get her into bed so she can rest and when she wakes up we'll ask her some more questions," Doc agreed, standing quickly.

"Please don't interrogate her," I pleaded, looking up at him. "That's the last thing she needs."

"Of course," he agreed, nodding his head.

"I'm going to go ahead and clear tha hallways, alright?" Jeb asked us, taking off before we could respond.

I moved Wanda so that she was lying horizontal in my arms and began to stand.

"Do you want me to—" Doc started to say holding out his hands to me, but I shook my head cutting him off. I didn't want anyone holding her but me.

I stood up and wobbled a bit; not that she was the least bit heavy, but I just had to regain my balance and I felt Mel's small hand gripping my upper arm in a vice-like manner. I smiled my thanks to her; to which she nodded and we started on our way, Doc carrying the bucket.

"Are you sure that you want her pukey breath in your bed though?" Mel asked once we started walking.

I glanced sideways at her and gave her an _'are you insane'_ look and she rolled her eyes.

"I'm just saying," she held her hands up defensively. "If it was me, I would kick Jared out of our bed."

"I know you would," I replied, laughing slightly. "But he would do the very same thing and I'm doing to Wanda, were it you."

She thought about that for a second as we crossed the main plaza.

"I know that, but it's different."

"How so?"

"Well, the guys are supposed to look after the girls; it's like, law. But how do you expect small, delicate little beings like Wanda and me to care for you great big oafs. I mean, there is _no_ way that I could lug Jared around like that," she nodded towards Wanda who I cradled protectively against my chest.

"Course not," I said. "But the fact that you would be there would mean to world to Jared."

"You think so?"

I raised my eyebrows and nodded at her and I saw Mel look away, deep in thought.

We reached our room and Doc slid the red door out of the way and we all stepped inside. I carefully made my way over to the bed and gently lay Wanda down on her back, pulling the covers up to her chin to try and stop her shivering. Just as I was about to turn and grab a chair from somewhere to sit beside her, a hand shot out from under the covers and grabbed my hand. I jumped a little at her ice-cold touch, but turned to her.

"Ian?" her voice croaked, and she tried to open her eyes to look up at me.

"Yes, Wanda?"

"Staywifme."

I frowned slightly, not completely able to understand what she said to me, but Mel clarified.

"She wants you to stay with her," she practically yelled.

"I'm not deaf," I told her and she smirked.

"Of course I'll stay with you," I turned back to Wanda and talked to her. "Let me just go and get a—"

I stopped talking when she shook her head.

"Just stay," she said, and patted the bed beside her.

I smiled a little and hopped up, resting back against the wall that served as our head board. Wanda never let go of my hand and I couldn't stop myself from reaching out to her and brushing the hair off of her forehead again. I then let my fingers slide through her silky hair, repeating the motion over and over again. I could faintly hear Melanie and Doc talking about something, but I tuned them out, not really caring about anything but my Wanda.

As I was stroking her hair, she started to subconsciously move closer to me until her head was practically in my lap. I let her stay there until it became too unbearable for me; her hot breath was breathing onto my groin and making me think inappropriate thoughts. I released her hand from mine and stopped stroking her hair, reaching behind her grabbing under her arms and lifting her up my body until her back was resting on my chest. I knew that I still didn't have a shirt on, but I didn't care; Wanda needed me and that was all that I thought about.

I saw a very small smile creep up on her face and I kissed her head before pulling the covers up on top of both of us.

**Wanda POV**

As I was lying there in Ian's arms, I was vaguely aware that there were people around me, but I couldn't stop myself when I started to gag. Someone shoved a bucket near me and I immediately threw up into it. I was too sick to be embarrassed about the fact that I had just showed whoever was there the contents of my stomach. Ian said something, but I didn't have time to respond; I was sleeping again.

I didn't dream at all; I was just totally unconscious. My body was spent, between the pain that I experienced and the constant upheaval of my stomach. I heard voices again and thought stupidly that I was floating before slipping back under again.

I started to come out of my sleep when I felt softness under my back and knew that we were back in our room. I felt someone pull the covers up, probably about to leave, but I wanted that person to stay with me. By the roughness of the calloused fingers that grazed my chin, I knew that it was Ian. I removed my hand from under the covers and grabbed his. His skin felt like lava under my hand, but I ignored the feeling as I addressed him.

"Ian?" I asked him, my voice sounding absolutely pitiful.

"Yes, Wanda?"

"Staywifme," I commanded of him, on the verge of sleep again.

I could tell that he didn't understand me as there was a long silence that followed my comment. I was too tired to try and repeat it, but luckily for me, Melanie was there and she seemed to understand what I said and clarified it for Ian.

"Of course I'll stay with you," he told me, starting to let go of my hand. "Let me just go and get a—" I shook my head almost too violently, making me a little queasy. I hoped they brought that bucket I had used earlier.

"Just stay," I pleaded with him, feebly patting the bed on my right side, willing for him to say yes.

My prayers were answered when I felt the bed sink down beside me as he sat down. I refused to let go of his hand and my insides started to melt when I felt his hand stroking softly through my hair. I couldn't help but to slowly move closer to him until I knew that my head was lying on top of him and my left arm was across his legs or something.

I felt him stop rubbing through my hair and I frowned a little until I felt his hands under my arms and he pulled me up so that I was lying on top of his chest. I could feel his strong arms reach around me before pulling the covers up until they were once again under my chin. Then he wrapped me up in a close embrace and I fell asleep.

This time around though, I slipped into dreamland and my dreams were bright and very vivid. In the beginning they were random and stupid and included purple lambs flying through fields of that strawberry cake that I had earlier. As they progressed, they made more sense.

_I was sitting in a grassy park by myself, under a tree with pink blossoms hanging down off of it. I was dressed in a white dress. Mel came running up to me, yelling something._

"_It's time! It's time!" she kept yelling as she got closer._

_I looked up at her and smiled as she held out her hand to me and I took it, standing up._

"_Let's go!" she screeched and pulled me along behind her as she ran back the way she came from._

_We ran for what seemed like forever, yet staying in the same spot. The scene around us changed to a sandy beach, the sun high in the sky above everyone, where a few rows of people were sitting with a clear aisle in the middle. I stood still as Mel primped me and shoved a bouquet of flowers in my hands._

_Some form of strange music started and Mel hugged me quickly before running down the aisle at top speed. I looked ahead of me and saw an arch decorated with flowers at the end and standing directly under it was an official looking person. _

_Ian was standing on the right of the arch with a goofy grin on his face. I focussed on it as I skied up the aisle towards him. When I finally got there, I stopped and tossed the flowers aside as we held hands. The minister in the middle of us started speaking another language while he said something and we just smiled at each other, lost in the moment._

_The minister started talking again and it was time for us to say our 'I do's'. Ian went first and said it clear and looked me right in the eyes the entire time._

"_I do," he repeated and I could feel tears in my eyes. _

_I could also feel the heat from the sun beating down on me. I knew that there was sweat pouring down my face, and felt like I was swimming in it. As the minister nodded at me to say my part, I felt a little dizzy and when I opened my mouth nothing came out._

Instead, when I opened my mouth in my dream, my eyes flew open and I sat up and dry heaved, feeling the acid burning up my throat again.

"Wanda, here," Ian said to me, handing me a small bucket lined with a bag.

I grasped it with both hands and proceeded to vomit into it again. I was disgusted that I could still have something left in my stomach to get rid of. I coughed and spluttered a few times and I could feel Ian's hand rubbing comforting circles on my back.

I dropped the bucket to the floor, making sure that it landed bottom down so nothing spilled out of it before sitting back on the bed.

"I'm sorry," I apologized to Ian as his hand continued to draw on my back.

"Wanda, don't ever be sorry. This is out of our hands; there's nothing we can do."

I sighed and nodded, wiping my forehead and noting that my bangs stuck to it in a really gross kind of way.

"Ugh," I groaned, noticing just how bad I must have smelled to everyone and closed my eyes.

"What is it, Wanda?" Ian asked, thinking something was horribly wrong. "Is there something I can do? Do you need anything?"

I shook my head and he stopped asking questions.

"I just feel really gross," I admitted. "I need..."

"Do you need something to drink?" Mel asked, already handing me a glass of water.

I took it and thanked her, gulping it down in two big gulps. After I finished it, I placed the cup on the floor and proceeded to move myself off of the bed, only to be stopped my two familiar arms that wrapped around me.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ian's voice sounded in my ear.

"I need to change."

"No you don't; you look just fine. Besides, I'm not letting you get up right now," he countered, pulling me closer, but I tried pulling at his arms anyways in a useless effort.

"I don't care how I look, Ian. I care that I've been in these clothes for a while and puked in them a few times. They're gross and I need to change."

"Oh," was his response as he clearly thought it over for a second. "Well..."

"Ian, I'm sick, not dead," I reminded him and heard a deep laugh from somewhere to see that it was Doc's. I didn't even notice that he was sitting in a chair until then.

"Oh, hi Doc," I greeted him, slightly embarrassed that he had now seen me sick as well.

"Hello, Wanda," he replied warmly.

Something light and feathery hit the side of my face, falling into my lap and I looked down to see that one of my crappy work shirts had been thrown there. I gingerly picked it up, giving it a whiff and the room exploded in laughter.

"Great, thanks guys," I grumped, shaking my head.

"Just shut up and change into that," Mel told me, now searching through Ian's clothes for something.

"I'm not changing here!" I practically screeched and then went red with embarrassment.

"And why not?" she demanded, whirling around and putting her hands on her hips, holding a pair of Ian's grey sweatpants.

"Because...." I mumbled, looking pointedly at Doc and Ian, hoping that she would get the message.

"Oh my God, Wanda," she said, exasperated, clearly getting the point that I was making.

"What? What is it?" Ian asked but I just shook my head.

"Well, what did I miss?" Jared called out, entering the room and crossing it to stand beside Melanie.

"Great," I said under my breath, coughing a little and wincing in pain as it began to take over my stomach once again.

I glanced out at Mel who hadn't noticed my facial expression as she was talking to Jared and Doc at the same time and I noticed that they both turned around to face the rocky wall. Once they had turned, she looked back over at me, threw the pants onto the bed and motioned for me to get moving, holding up two fingers signalling that I only had two minutes to change. I sighed and turned to Ian.

"Umm. I'm a.... going to..." I couldn't finish as the pain overtook my stomach in a strong wave. I guess that he just thought that I was too embarrassed to continue, for he leaned close to me, kissing my cheek before tugging the big shirt out of my hands.

"It's fine, Wanda," he told me. "I won't peek, I promise."

This time, I did genuinely blush.

True to his word, Ian did close his eyes, but he also clapped his hands over top of them and I couldn't help but to giggle. I wanted to kiss his cheeks, but they were covered by his hands, so I settled for sitting up on my knees, pushing the dark hair off of his forehead and kissing it instead. I sat back on my heels and took off the nice green shirt that Ian had put on me the first time I decided to expel my bodily contents. I looked at it and wrinkled my nose a little before throwing it on the floor beside my bucket.

I looked down at the nice purple shirt that I was wearing and sighed as I slid it up and over my head, placing it gently on the bed beside me. I then started to struggle with the stupid blue top that Mel put on me, and remembered that there was nothing on underneath it. I decided that I would just have to be quick about it, so I got to work getting it off and got my arm stuck. I quickly looked over at her for help, but she was occupying Jared and didn't see me. I closed my eyes and counted to three, hoping that it would go away and that no one would see me there with my arm stuck in my 'shirt', half exposed to the world.

When my eyes opened, I was still sitting there awkwardly and Mel still hadn't noticed. I sighed and turned around to Ian and saw that he was still covering his eyes and I couldn't help but to giggle.

"What?" he asked me, grinning beneath his hands.

"You look cute," I admitted before blushing, glad that his eyes were covered so that he couldn't see this one.

"Aww, thanks Wanda," he replied, joking with me.

"Ian.... can you... I need..."

"Are you okay?" he ripped his hands from his eyes and they flew open, quickly noting that I wasn't exactly adequately dressed.

"Oh... Wanda, I'm sorry," he began apologizing at once, but I waved him off.

"It's okay. But can you help me out of this thing?" I asked him, masking my embarrassment.

"Of course I will," he quickly agreed, reaching towards me and trying to get a hold on the bottom of the shirt.

"No, wait!" I said to him fast, so that he didn't continue. Ian gave me an odd look and I knew I had to explain myself. "It's just that... I'm not wearing anything, uh, underneath?"

Ian obviously understood, as he nodded, smiling.

"I'd offer you my shirt, but I've already done that," Ian joked, gesturing towards his bare chest.

"I know, sorry about that too," I tried apologizing, but Ian placed his hand over my mouth to stop me. I sighed and rolled my eyes at him.

"Don't be sorry, Wanda. I keep telling you that, but when are you going to believe me?"

I shrugged and felt a little guilty. He spent half his life telling me the same things over and over again, and I hardly ever heeded his words. I resolved to listen to him from then on and looked up at him again.

"Sorry?" I couldn't help but to offer and he chuckled, kissing my cheek.

"Now, let's get this thing off of you," Ian stated, thinking at the same time. "How about we just... okay. I'll pull it up and over your head and you can quickly pull the blanket up to you and I'll pass you the new shirt. Does that sound okay?"

I nodded, grinning and waited for him to start. Ian looked me in the eyes before reaching towards me and placing his hands on either side of my waist, grabbing a hold of the shirt. I jumped when his cold hands touched my skin and he apologized. I nodded, waving it off before he started to inch it up my body.

"You won't look, will you? You know... in case something happens?" I whispered to him quickly, trying to keep my voice down so the others wouldn't hear me.

"Wanda, I would never do anything that you aren't comfortable with. Of course I won't look."

I nodded in approval and he swiftly guided the shirt off my stupid arm that was stuck in it and over my head as I quickly pulled the blanket on top of our bed up to my chest. Ian reached for the new shirt, but stopped and placed a hand on my cheek instead.

"You look awfully pale, Wanda," he said to me, looking very concerned. "Paler than normal, I mean."

I shrugged. "It's probably a repercussion of the whole puking my guts out thing," I tried to joke with him, but his face remained worried.

Just then, a cold wave of air passed through the room, making me shiver and goose bumps popped up all over my body. Ian noticed and frowned, removing his hand from my face and rubbing both of them up and down my arms, chaffing them to try and warm me up. Instead, I leaned towards him and rested my forehead on his bare chest and I could feel his arms around me as I melted into his touch and his body heat. Wrapped up in his embrace like that, I was suddenly too hot and I pushed myself away from him, swinging my legs over the side of the bed spluttering and coughing, clutching the blanket to my chest. Ian leaned over beside me and picked up the bucket, holding me tight just as I threw up again.

After I finished with that awful task, I groaned and held my hand in my hands, resting my elbows on my knees.

"Are you okay?" Ian asked and I nodded, looking up to see that Mel, Jared and Doc had crowded around us as well.

"Did you have to watch?" I grumbled, wiping my face with my hand, realizing that I still had only the blanket covering me and gasped, holding it tight to my body.

Someone ruffled my already messed up hair and I shook my head. Ian's arms pulled me back up against him and handed the old shirt to me. I took it in my hand and put on arm through it, strategically holding the blanket up while manoeuvring it over my head as well. Once I pulled it down, I let the blanket fall down and sighed, pushing the mop of hair off of my head.

"Wanda? Now that you're awake and everything, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" Doc asked me, and I shook my head. "I just want to try and nail down exactly what I think is wrong with you," he explained, smiling.

"Yeah, that's fine. I want to know too," I said before wincing and clutching my stomach as another round of pain tore through my stomach.

"Wanda," Ian said, probably worried about me. He turned my head to look into my eyes before looking over at Doc. "Please do something. Isn't there anything that we can do to take away the pain?"

Doc shook his head. "No there isn't, I'm sorry. There isn't any No Pain left at all. I've already looked everywhere; we need another raid."

Jared nodded in agreement. "I even checked before I came up here and everything."

Ian sighed and I looked at Doc. "Aren't you going to ask me some questions?"

"Oh, right" he said, moving his chair over beside us and pulling a notepad out of what seemed like thin air.

"Alright Wanda, are you ready?"

I nodded and he smiled at me encouragingly.

"Okay, when did you first start noticing any symptoms?" he began his questioning and I sighed, starting to retell everything to him.

**Ian POV**

As Wanda was answering all of Doc's questions, I couldn't help but to sit back and just watch her. Lately I had taken to observing her more often, it seemed to be a bit of a habit now and sometimes I hardly realized that I was doing it. She just looked so gorgeous and I still couldn't believe that she would want to spend her life with me; after all, I was just a little old human in the grand scheme of life. I knew that she could do so much better than me, and I tried my hardest to prove my worth to her so that she didn't just up and leave.

That was why I planned the birthday surprise for her; to try and prove to her that the people in the caves really do love and care for her as their own, and also to impress her and show her that I can take care of her. Even Maggie and Sharon helped out, and that's really saying something, so I only hoped that she would want to stay here for the rest of her life. I knew that she had said that she wanted to stay here in the past, but I hoped that it still applied. It dawned on me then that the party would still be going on. I hoped that Kyle and the others didn't let it get too out of hand. If they did, I was going to refuse cleaning it up. I wondered if they even realized that Wanda was missing from the party.

I sighed and went back to my observations.

Even though she was sick and sort of a grey color, she looked beautiful. It took everything out of me not to scoop her up in my arms and kiss her senseless right now in front of everyone, but I contained that emotion and leaned back against the stone wall. As Doc was asking another question while recording her answer from the last one, Wanda looked over at me and flashed me one of her smiles; the one that absolutely makes my heart melt and skip several beats.

I couldn't help but to grin back at her and open my arms wide, inviting her into my embrace. Lucky for me, she crawled over and leaned back against my chest; I needed to remember to put a shirt on, sighing as I wrapped my arms securely around her. She snuggled down a bit and my insides turned to jelly. Just to be able to sit there and hold this wonderful warm being in my arms was the single most wonderful thing ever.

Since I had tuned out their conversation, I began to play with her beautiful blonde hair. I twirled the ends of it around my fingers, making sure to brush out any knots that I made after, letting it fall gently against her skin again. Wanda let her head rest back against me and I noticed that she yawned. That was my signal to intervene before she fell asleep during the questioning.

"Alright Doc, I think you've got enough information," I said to him and he looked up from his notes, a little confused.

"You promised that you wouldn't interrogate her," I reminded him and he laughed.

"Of course I wouldn't, Ian. I was merely trying to get the most information about this as possible."

"Well, I think that's enough for right now," I told him and Wanda started to protest.

"But Ian, it's okay, I can manage," she said, trying to turn around to look at me, but I held her in place.

"I know that you can manage, but what good will it be if you fall asleep on him?" I asked her and the room fell silent.

"Just looking over my notes here," Doc started to say, flipping the pages at lightning speed, "I seem to have enough information here to start to form a conclusion from. If I just go and ask a few people some more questions, I'll have a definite answer for you very soon."

"Good," Wanda said. "I'm sick of being sick. I just want to know what's wrong."

"Okay then, I will go and get to the bottom of this for you. In the meantime, I want you to get some sleep. Your body will be spent from all the energy that you've had to go through and it needs to regenerate some. Ian, I trust that you will see to it that she sleeps?" he asked me and I nodded.

"Of course. I won't let her leave my side," I vowed and I could practically hear her scowling at me.

"I don't doubt that," Doc told me, getting up and crossing the room.

Jared slid the door out of the way and the pair of them stepped into the hall. I noticed that Mel was snoring lightly in one of the chairs that had been brought in some time; I didn't recall seeing that, but evidently someone had done so.

"I don't need a baby sitter, you know," Wanda complained from my arms and I chuckled, squeezing her once more before releasing her.

"I know," I replied, sliding down so I was lying on my back. "But you do need me and I promise that I'll take very good care of you."

I finished and opened my arms again. She giggled and lay down with her head resting on my left shoulder and I neatly tucked her into my side, wrapping her up tight and tucking the covers under her chin.

"Aren't you afraid of getting sick?" Wanda asked me and I shook my head.

"No, I'm not. The only thing I'm afraid of is that you won't get better, and that won't be a good thing, will it?"

Wanda let out a cute little giggle and shook her head.

"No it won't Ian. Don't worry. With all this sleep you're making me get, I'll be good as new in no time."

"I sure hope you're right, Wanda," I told her, kissing her forehead and then her nose.

It was quiet for a little while and I felt myself drifting off to sleep. I thought that Wanda was already sound asleep when she turned to me.

"Ian?"

"Mhm?" I answered sleepily.

"I love you," she told me simply and I couldn't help but to smile in my sleep-induced haze.

"I love you too Wanda. Forever and for always."

**By the way, for those of you who were asking, Canada did win the game by a lot and it was a very proud moment in Canadian history winning five World Junior Championships in a row! : )**

**Review! : )**


	4. Diagnosis

**A/N: SO. It has been awhile my friends, and I'll apologize a thousand times for it. There will be a really good explanation for it at the bottom of this chapter. For now, let's read.**

**Thanks to Anaeli, Vanessa-Wolfe303, meggi115, sarah12345, EagleGirl12 and InLuvWithFictionalCharacters for your wonderful reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. Vanessa-Wolfe303 is responsible for the plot; I just brought her idea to life.**

**Mel POV**

Jared sat down on the hard stone floor in Ian and Wanda's room shortly after they fell asleep together and tugged gently on my waist on the way down. I looked at his pleading face before giving in and smiling as I allowed him to pull me down until I was seated in his lap with his arms around me. I sighed and leaned back into him, feeling Jared's lips on the top of my head, giving it a kiss.

"I feel so horrible," I commented to him, looking over at Ian and Wanda's sleeping forms. "I mean, it was her birthday and everything, you know."

I could feel Jared nodding his head against the back of mine.

"You don't think it's contagious, do you?" he asked and I could tell by the slight waver in his voice that he was a little nervous for the outcome of the answer.

"I don't know," I admitted and he huffed. "But if it was, we've been exposed for a long time to it, so we'd get it for sure. You are more likely than the rest of us though."

"That's because you made _me_ clean it up," he replied and I knew he was still sore over that fact.

"Well, someone had to do it," I shrugged.

"So you make me do it then? What about Ian?"

"Ian was busy taking care of Wanda," I pointed out. "Think of it this way; if the roles were reversed and it was me that was sick, you would have made Ian clean it up, I'm sure of it."

Jared chuckled softly and tightened his hold on me.

"You're probably right," he admitted. "I can't argue with that."

We must have fallen asleep as well, as I didn't remember anything else being said or done after that point. I did, however, sit straight up as if I had a subconscious feeling like something wasn't right; I felt like Miss Clavel in that book Madeline that my Mom had read to me when I was younger. I unravelled myself from Jared's arms and looked over towards the bed, quickly noticing that Wanda wasn't in it. I swiftly looked around the room and didn't see any traces of her at all, so I stood up as fast as I could; a little panicked, and half ran over to the bed and began shaking Ian awake.

"Ian!" I hissed repeatedly and all he did was try and swat my hands away. I stood back, looking down at him with my hands on my hips before I tried a new method of attack.

"Ian, get up!" I whisper yelled at him; hitting his shoulders rather hard with my hand.

"What is it?" he asked groggily, reaching out to the spot where Wanda had been sleeping and immediately sat up once he realized she was gone.

"Where is she?" he demanded, looking around and throwing the blankets off of him.

"I don't actually know," I admitted and he glared at me. "I swear it's not my fault! I just woke up and she wasn't here. I'm sure she couldn't have gone far," I said, practically running after him as he took off out of the room.

"Okay, it's okay Ian," he told himself like a mantra and I felt a little sorry for him.

It must have been heartbreaking to wake up and find the love of your life gone. I couldn't imagine doing that. I then remembered that I had done that to Jared back there and I quickly scrounged around in my pockets for a piece of paper. I found a list from earlier today and asked Ian for a pen or something. He stopped walking and just looked at me like I was crazy, shaking his head.

"No, but there's one right there," he pointed to a stray pen that was randomly lying on the ground. I quickly scribbled a message on the paper to Jared, knowing that he would come this way and left it in the middle of the floor so that he would clearly see it.

"Okay, let's go," I told Ian once I had finished and we began walking again.

Once we got out into the main plaza, Ian turned to me and I could tell by the look on his face that he had a plan in mind.

"I'm going to check out the kitchens; she might have gotten hungry or really thirsty or something. You go check the bathrooms; she might have gone to take a bath or something, okay?"

I nodded at him. "Ian, you don't have to be so worried. She won't have left the caves or anything; she's safe down here."

"I know she wouldn't have left, but I like to have a general idea of where she is, particularly when she's sick and feeling like that; throwing up and all."

"Don't worry too much," I told him, giving him a light push in the direction of the kitchen.

He shook his head and started lightly jogging off in that direction and I turned the other way to cross the big room again in the direction of the bathrooms. I walked silently and came to a fork in the roads; one led the way down to where I was supposed to be headed, and the other led back to the party that was still going on by the sounds of it. Part of me wanted to go and dance to one song, as it had been forever since we had been able to have music and a party like this down here, but I immediately felt guilty for even thinking of ditching Wanda and trotted off in the right direction.

I rounded the last corner and couldn't see anything; there wasn't any light and I had forgotten to bring a lantern down with me, clearly not thinking beforehand.

"Wanda?" I called out and there was no response.

I sighed and decided to check them out anyways just to make sure that she hadn't fallen into the river or anything. I walked in and stepped gingerly over the part of the floor that threatened to give way any moment, crossing to the bathing room and the pool. I stopped suddenly when I heard sniffling, and I tried to figure out which direction it was coming in because it was unclear with the echo in this room. A louder sob from somewhere on my left in the direction of the pool and I carefully stepped closer to the room, up on my tip toes.

"Wanda?" I called out again and this time there was an answer.

"Mel?" she asked, confirming my suspicions as to where she was and I tore off in that direction.

"Wanda where are you?" I asked, trying to look around in the dark, obviously not being able to find anything.

"I'm... I'm in the washroom," she answered and I knew that she was actually in that part, not taking a bath or something.

"Are you okay?" I asked once I got to the door and peered inside.

"No... I'm not."

"Ian's looking everywhere for you," I started saying. "I should go and tell him that I've..."

"No," she cut me off and I stopped talking.

"Wanda, what's wrong?" I asked again gently.

"I had to use the bathroom really, really badly when I woke up and I didn't want to wake Ian up or anybody else because it's sort of really... embarrassing," she finished.

"Is it? You should have told someone though," I said to her and I could practically hear her shaking her head from wherever she was sitting.

"I didn't want anyone to know. I really had to go," she repeated and I looked around again.

"Even if you just would have..."

"Mel, there was _no_ time, I _had_ to go," she stressed those few words and I got it.

"Oh," I said quietly.

"Yeah."

An awkward silence fell over us before anyone dared to speak again.

"Hey Mel do you think that you can do me a huge favour?" she asked me and I quickly agreed. "I really want to take a bath and change, but... would you be able to get me a towel or something?"

"Course, Wanda" I agreed and told her to stay put.

I lightly jogged out of the cave and back towards her and Ian's room when I ran smack into Ian's chest. He chuckled a little bit while holding his arms out to steady me.

"Hey there, where do you think that you're running off to so quickly?" he asked and I shrugged. "Did you find her?"

I didn't answer him right away and he looked at me like I was mentally incompetent, which I probably seemed to be, but I was just trying to decide whether or not Wanda would want him there. I decided that if I were in her shoes, I would want Jared there, regardless of the situation, but this was Wanda, and she tended to get embarrassed over the littlest things, and I didn't think that she would want Ian there.

"Yeah I did, she's down in the washrooms like you thought," I told him and he started to turn in that direction so I quickly grabbed his wrist. "But wait. She's okay... she just wants a towel and stuff so she can take a bath." Ian began to nod his head and slowed a little bit.

"Okay. I'll go get her stuff; you go back to her, okay?"

I nodded and be began to take off in the direction of their room while I sighed and yelled after him,

"She's not dead, you know!"

He obviously didn't hear me as he was far away, so I just shook my head and walked back in the direction that I had just come from. I made it back to the washroom in record time and found Wanda sitting on the hard stone floor with her head resting on her knees, legs pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.

"Are you okay?" I asked her once I got close and she nodded. "Ian's gone to get you a towel, okay?"

"I said that I didn't want him down here," she groaned into her legs.

"But you know Ian; he would come down here whether you wanted to or not," I pointed out to her and she nodded, agreeing with me.

"You should go and take your bath now," I told her. "He'll be down in a few moments anyways."

She silently stood and nodded, walking into the room and I remained rooted to the spot, sitting and waiting for Ian to come down so I could go and get some more rest.

**Ian POV**

As I lightly jogged back to the room I tried to think of different reasons as to why Wanda would just disappear like that without leaving a note or anything. I didn't come up with anything by the time I got to the doors and I noticed that we never did close them as I slid through the opening and crossed to the shelves to where Wanda's clothes were. I started rifling through them and I guess that I disturbed Jared who was still slumped on the floor, as he woke with a start and tried to get his bearings.

"Where? Why? Where am I?" he asked and I chuckled.

"You're still in my room, Jared," I told him, crossing to grab Wanda's towel. "Wanda took off earlier without any warning so Mel and I went to look for her. She's okay; Mel is with her now until I get down there to bring her a change of clothes and a towel, she wants a bath."

"I'm coming," he stated, jumping to his feet and running a hand through his hair.

"You sure that you're okay?" I asked as he swayed a little beside me and he nodded.

"Just a little sleepy is all," he replied and I couldn't help but to chuckle again.

"Alright, let's go," I told him, stepping out of the room and making sure to put the red door back in place this time.

We walked silently down the hall until Jared suddenly stopped and I turned around to see why he had so abruptly stopped. I noticed that he was standing holding a note of some sort and I couldn't help but to smile as I recognized it as the one that Melanie had written for him earlier.

"She wrote that so that you wouldn't sorry if you woke up and found us all gone," I explained and he nodded his head, folding it neatly and shoving it into the pocket of his jeans.

We continued our walk before Jared spoke again.

"How come Wanda took off and left like that?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "Melanie wouldn't tell me either when I saw her, she just asked me to get a towel."

He nodded again and we rounded a corner to see a few people exiting the hallway that led down to the games room; Kyle was one of them.

"Hey, how's Wanda doing?" he asked, catching up with Jared and I and I stopped to turn and face him.

"Not so well," I told him. "She keeps throwing up and stuff."

"Ew."

I snorted. "Real mature, Kyle."

"Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm just letting you know that everything's cleaned up in there, save a few larger pieces that we'll get later on. We're going to attack the kitchen later on this morning, once everyone's a little more awake."

"Wait, the party's finished?" I asked him and he gave me an odd look. "Don't give me that, we left awhile ago, but I didn't think it was _that_ long ago."

"Yea it's done; it ended about an hour ago, just some of us stayed behind to clean up, like you had indicated on the sheet."

I nodded. "Did Jeb ever come back?"

"He did; just asked some people a few questions before leaving again. He wouldn't tell me anything about Wanda though, it was kind of frustrating. But yeah. The party kind of died after Wanda left, you know? But I guess that's always the way it goes when the guest of honour leaves, eh?"

"Sure. Look, Kyle, I've got to go and get these things to Wanda," I said to him, gesturing to the stuff I had in my hands. "But I'll come talk to you later, okay?"

"Sure sure," he answered before running off after Sunny, who was waiting patiently for him a little ways away.

We were almost at the washroom when Jared turned to me.

"You really do love Wanda, don't you?"

I was slightly taken back by this, not exactly expecting it from him, and it took me a few seconds to recover

"Yes I do. I love her with all that I have to give. Why?"

"Well, you're just taking such good care of her that I wanted to make sure that you weren't just doing it because she is sick."

I looked at him sideways, giving him an odd look.

"Of course I love her; I want to take care of her no matter what," I said and he nodded. "If I didn't love her, would I have planned such a big party as the one that I did, even though I knew that she would definitely balk at it?"

"Well, you could have just been doing it to show that you're a really good friend?" he suggested and I shook my head.

"Absolutely not."

"Alright, I was just checking, playing a little devil's advocate. I didn't mean anything by it, I was just making sure, you know. Gotta make sure."

"You always were a strange one," I told him, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder as we rounded the corner to find Melanie sitting on the cold floor.

"Mel!" Jared practically yelped, bounding the last few feet over to her. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm?" she said, looking up at him. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" he asked, looking over her to make sure for himself.

"Jared, I'm fine," she replied swatting his hands away. "I was just waiting for you guys to show up." She stood up and stretched, yawning a bit and I caught the very noticeable smirk on Jared's face.

"Let's go," Mel said, reaching a hand down for Jared to take, which he did very eagerly. "I want to get some sleep; it's almost morning, after all. Let me know if anything happens," she instructed me, as they left the cave.

"I will," I promised, and stepped gingerly into the room, careful to mind the floor and sat down outside the door to the pool where I knew Wanda was.

I could hear her splashing around gently in there and I couldn't help but to smile. I waited patiently for her to finish, quietly sliding the towel and clothes into the pool so that she wouldn't see me before sitting outside the door again.

"Mel?" I heard her small voice echo from inside the room.

"Um, she left about ten minutes ago," I replied.

"Oh. I didn't know you were here, Ian."

"That's alright," I chuckled. "Just so you know there is a towel and change of clothes by the door for you," I told her.

"Thank you," she said and I could hear the splashes she made while getting out of the pool.

After a few moments, she emerged from the room and stood there sort of awkwardly, waiting until I got up to stand beside her.

"Are you alright?" I asked her and she nodded, trying to neatly fold her clothes up.

I reached over and took them from her, tucking them under my arm. She started to protest, but I just raised my eyebrows at her and she smiled, effectively ending the argument that was about to come out of her lips. I looked down at her and stepped a little closer, quickly checking to make sure for myself that she was physically okay. She looked a little, well, very tired and had purple bags under her eyes. I knew that part of that was from dehydration and I made a mental note to take her up to the kitchens when she was feeling a little up to it. I reached my hand out towards her and took her small one in mine and laced my fingers through it, rubbing my thumb in soothing circles over the back of her soft hand. I saw a smile turn up the corners of her mouth and I motioned wordlessly with my head towards the door, silently asking if we could leave, to which Wanda nodded.

We walked together back to our room and I tossed the clothes that I was holding down onto the floor.

"Ian," she reprimanded me, but all I could do was smile.

"Yes, Wanda?"

"Aren't you going to deal with those properly?" she asked me and I shook my head. "No? Why not?"

"I'm not going to worry about doing anything with those," I admitted and looked down at Wanda who I could see was already rolling her eyes.

Wanda let go of my hand and bent down and started to pick up the clothes, folded them nicely and walked over to the shelves that were by the bed and placed them in their proper places. After she finished, I made my way over to where she was and wrapped my arms around her tiny waist. I heard my Wanda giggle and I buried my face in the back of her head, smelling her luscious hair and feeling the softness of it now that she had just washed it.

"Ian," she groaned, and I knew that she was blushing, even though I couldn't see her face.

"Wanda," I teased and she laughed again.

"Seriously Ian, you're squishing my stomach and it hurts."

"Oh," I loosened my grip a little bit, but still managed to hold her close. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," she replied and I smiled into her neck, giving it a little kiss.

"You should lie back down," I told her, backing up slowly towards the bed. "You need your rest to get your energy back.

"I don't want to, I'm fine," she tried to convince me but at that moment the back of my knees hit the edge of the mattress and we fell backwards.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized as she landed on my chest.

"Don't worry about it," I chuckled, but she still rolled off of me and lay down beside me.

Within a minute she had sat back up and doubled over, reaching frantically over the other side of the bed. I sat up immediately and managed to grab a hold of her hair and a side of the bucket as she retched into it again. After she finished, Wanda sat upright and groaned.

"I'm so sick of doing that," she said and I hugged her, lying back down and pulling her with me.

"I know you are, love. I wish I could make it stop," I told her, kissing her head as she snuggled down into my side, resting her head on my chest.

"Go to sleep," I whispered to her, and began to play with her hair a little bit until I heard her breathing even out and I knew she was sleeping. I wasn't too far behind her.

**Wanda POV**

Hours later I woke again and looked right up at the ceiling. I noted by the color of the sky through the cracks in it that it was much later in the morning. I then moved my head so that I could look at Ian; I saw that he was still sleeping, so I decided not to disturb him. I settled for closing my eyes again, just to rest them for the time being.

_Ian and I were lying in the back of the van while Jared and Mel were driving; we must have been out on another raid or something. Ian's brilliant blue eyes were looking directly into my own silver ones and I couldn't help but to look away and blush as I normally did, hating the reaction that this body had to everything. I wished that I could take away that one trait about it. I could feel his fingers running through my hair and it felt oddly realistic._

_All of a sudden the back doors of the van opened and the floor disappeared leaving Ian and I falling to the ground below..._

I awoke with a start and jumped slightly, realizing that I had fallen asleep again. I sat up and felt Ian's hand fall away from my head; I realized that he must have been awake and brushing through my hair, making it seem real in my dream.

"Are you okay?" he automatically asked me and I nodded just as my stomach growled. I heard him chuckle a little.

"Hungry?"

I nodded again and started to get up off the bed while putting my hair up into a pony tail. Ian stood beside me and I looked up at him.

"Can we go get something? Even a roll would be awesome at this point, I'm completely drained," I asked him.

"Of course we can. I was actually just about to wake you up because I was going to go get you a drink and something to eat. You must be famished."

"I am, but I don't see how I could be; I mean we only ate a little while ago," I said and he turned to look at me funny.

"Wanda, I know that we've been sleeping for a long time, but still. It's been twenty four hours since you last ate or drank anything," he pointed out and I stepped out into the hallway and started walking down towards the kitchens.

"Really? No, it has not been."

"Wanda, it seriously has," he caught up with me and took my hand in his again. I loved the feeling of our hands connected like that.

"Well, why hasn't anyone come in and bothered me or tried to wake me up or something? I bet there are a lot of things to be done and...."

I was silenced when a large hand was clamped over my mouth.

"Wanda, nothing much has happened today, everyone was taking a bit of a holiday in light of your party last night anyways. And besides, you're sick. Doc came in and told me just to let you sleep, so if you're going to blow up about anything, yell at him."

We walked in silence while I thought about it.

"Well, if Doc said that it was okay...."

"Wanda, it's fine," Ian told me and I nodded.

We eventually arrived in the kitchen and there were only a couple of people there. Ian sent me to grab a table while he went and got us some food. I noticed that Doc was one of the people in the cave and I gave him a small smile as I sat down. He got up from his place and came over to sit across from me seconds before Ian returned with a rather large glass of water, which he placed in front of me, and a few rolls.

"Are you trying to make me float away?" I asked him sarcastically and he rolled his eyes.

"Just drink up," he told me and I took a sip.

"Bigger than that," he instructed and I glared at him while taking another one.

"He's right you know," Doc said to me. "You'll be quite dehydrated, I'd imagine."

As he was talking, I realized just how thirsty I was and just about downed the entire glass in a few huge gulps. This caused Doc and Ian to laugh and I ignored them as I put it back down on the table top. Ian promised to get me another one as he handed me a roll and I began picking it apart, a little wary as to whether or not I was going to be able to keep it down.

"So Wanda, how are you feeling?" Doc asked me and I knew that we were going to get down to business.

"I'm okay," I said simply and I heard Ian sigh beside me.

"When was the last time that you threw up?"

"Ummmm?" I looked to Ian for an answer as clearly I had no sense of time.

He chuckled, but luckily supplied an answer.

"It was a few hours before you last popped into the room." He then looked down at me. "Eat your roll, Wanda."

I ripped off a piece and put it in my mouth, chewing on it only to please him.

"How about the stomach pain? Is that any better or worse?" Doc asked and leaned forward in his seat a little bit.

I actually had to think about it for a second as it wasn't ripping through me anymore. I swallowed hard before answering.

"It certainly doesn't hurt as bad as it did, but there's still a little hint of hurt, if you know what I mean," I told him, unable to put it into words.

"I understand," he said, with a smile and I could see a little twinkle in his eyes. Ian stood and went back to get me another glass of water as Doc asked another question.

"Wanda what did you eat last night?"

"You mean as my 'Last Supper'?" I asked and giggled a little bit while Doc nodded, encouraging my answer. "Well, I had everything that the rest of you did: the roast beef and the stuff that went with it, I don't really remember what it was any more, to be honest."

"_Sorry Ian,"_ I said mentally as I knew how much work went into last night's dinner.

"Then I had the cake," I concluded and I heard a shout from the back.

"What was that Ian?" Doc asked and Ian came rushing forwards.

"No she didn't; she had a different cake than the rest of us," he said, giving my glass back and sitting down with me.

"Oh that's right," I remembered. "The amazing strawberry one."

"That's good, thanks for remembering that one, Ian. I know what you are sick with now," Doc said all at once and I nearly choked on the water I was drinking and luckily Ian was there to pat my back.

"What was it?" Ian asked for me as I regained myself again.

"Food poisoning," he said simply and folded his arms across his chest.

"That's it?" I asked. "That's what has been causing all this trouble? Something as simple as that?"

"Well with it, there is a possibility that it could become much worse than what you have. In the past, there have been people who have been admitted into hospitals and become very sick and some may have even died from it."

"You're lying," I said to him, but he shook his head.

"No, it's true. This was before your souls came to Earth though."

"Sorry," I said in a small voice and bit into my roll again.

"Wanda stop apologizing for that; it wasn't your fault at all," Ian said to me, pulling me close to his side. "Besides, if they have never come, I never would have met you," he whispered into my ear and I giggled, looking up at Doc who was smiling again.

"Well, do we have a verdict?" a loud voice boomed from the doorway and we all looked up to see Jeb strolling towards us.

Doc nodded and began explaining it all over again, but I tuned him out, choosing to lean into Ian instead. I felt him kiss the top of my head and relief washed over me. I would get better; at least it was nothing life threatening. I would get better and I would have Ian there with me every step of the way.

**Two Days Later**

**WPOV**

I was sitting on the floor in the games room that had been transformed back into the regular dark cave that it always, but now it was lit up by my pink lantern. Melanie was lying next to me and we were all going through the photo album that she had given me for my birthday with all the ones off of the kitchen walls that had been taken down spread around us.

"Mel, this is really the greatest gift ever," I told her. "I don't know how you pulled it off, but I really, really love it."

"Well you're more than welcome for it, Wanda," she replied as she flipped another page that contained pictures of Ian and I. "You deserve it. How are you feeling, by the way?"

"Much better than I was before, thanks for asking."

She nodded and flipped another page.

"Thank you for helping to take care of me," I said quietly and she looked up.

"You're welcome, but honestly I didn't do much. Ian was there for you through the whole thing; you have him to thank and Jared for cleaning up your mess the first time."

I wrinkled my nose at the thought of that and laughed.

"You're right. Remind me to thank Jared big time the next time that I see him."

"I'll do that," she giggled, sitting up beside me.

She stopped and looked at me and reached out her hand towards me. I didn't know what she was doing until she touched the pendant on my necklace.

"You're still wearing it," she remarked and I nodded my head.

"Of course I am. It's beautiful; how could I take it off? Besides, I'd be afraid to lose it if I did," I admitted and she laughed.

"He really loves you," Mel said to me and I nodded.

"I know. I'm lucky to have found a guy like him," I said and giggled.

"You're damn right you are," Ian's voice sounded from behind us and Mel gave a little shriek.

"Don't you sneak up on us like that again!" she said, smacking his leg, which was the only part of him that she could reach as he sat on the other side of me.

"Okay, sorry!" he apologized, holding his hands up in defence. "I won't do it again."

"Good," she mumbled and I leaned into him.

"Thank you for taking care of me," I said to him and he chuckled.

"I wouldn't have had it any other way," he said and kissed my head.

I was glad that I was over this sickness and could get back to appreciating life and having fun, and actually eating real foods again. I was also very glad that I had my two favourite people in the world with me and I knew that nothing would ever change that.

_The End._

**So that's it! This story is officially completed. Thank you so much to Vanessa-Wolfe303 for coming to me with the idea and the plot, this was really fun to write! :)**

**As for the reason why it's so late.... it's because of a few factors.  
After the last time that I posted, I got a massive virus on my laptop and we had to clean it out and then I proceeded to get another one. As a precaution, we unplugged the wireless internet and the router so that it didn't go into the main computer as it tried to. Once everything was resolved, we couldn't get the internet hooked up for three weeks.  
In the meantime I was majorly swamped with schoolwork as it was mid-term time, so I decided that since this week was Reading Week I would have plenty of time to write. Not so much. Monday night we had a fire at our house so I couldn't stay here Tuesday and half of Wednesday because of the smell. Nothing major, just a lot of smell.  
But now it's done!**

**Review! : )**


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